Historical explorations of the effects of war upon Britain's society and economy have focused, for the most part, on the twentieth century. This is not surprising in view of the profound effect that two world wars have had upon patterns of economic and social change, and considerable attention has been paid by historians to the ways in which those wars and their legacy helped to shape or reshape the contours of modern British society. As a result, a rich and detailed literature sheds light upon almost every conceivable aspect of the British domestic experience during the age of ‘total’ warfare. Although important, a concentration on the twentieth century can be misplaced, however, because war also exerted considerable influence over the earlier development of Britain's society and economy. This was especially so during the ‘long eighteenth century’ – from 1688 to 1815 – when Britain was at war for much of the time and contemporaries still adhered to the fatalistic belief that war, if not ever present in their lives, was always to be expected (Ceadel, 1996:4–5).

The importance of war during the eighteenth century has, of course, long been recognised by historians. Over a hundred years ago, Sir John Seeley was moved to comment that war was the ‘characteristic feature’ of the period, while more recently the eighteenth century has been described as an ‘age of war’ (Seeley, 1883: 25; Langford, 1976: 23).