Kirjahaku

"History by Numbers" stands alone as the only textbook on quantitative methods suitable for students of history encountering the field for the first time. It is an exceptional book - even the numerically challenged will find inspiration. Taking a problem-solving approach and using authentic historical data, it describes each method in turn, including its origin, purpose, usefulness, and associated pitfalls. The problems are developed gradually and with narrative skill, allowing readers to experience the moment of discovery for each of the interpretative outcomes. Quantitative methods are now essential for the modern historian, and this lively and readable text will prove an invaluable guide for anyone entering the discipline.

This book analyses the sources of finance used in the Yorkshire wool textile sector during a period of rapid expansion, considerable technical change and the gradual transformation from domestic and workshop production to factory industry. Although there has been much recent debate about capital investment proportions and their sources nationally, there is no other study of a region or section capable of testing various hypotheses current in the general literature of the British ‘industrial revolution’. How was capital amassed in proto-industry? How important were merchants in building factories? What role did landowners and the local banking sector? What influence did trade credit and fluctuations in trade credit have on the expansion of productive enterprise? How important was reinvestment and what determined both profitability and the extent to which it was ploughed back into business? The answers to these questions have value for all students of the industrialisation process, whilst the detailed material on Yorkshire is of interest for local study and provides a model of the questions which could be asked in other similar regional studies of the future.

This is an introduction to the Industrial Revolution which offers an integrated account of the economic and social aspects of change during the period. Recent revisionist thinking has implied that fundamental change in economic, social and political life at the time of the Industrial Revolution was minimal or non-existent. The author challenges this interpretation, arguing that the process of revision has gone too far; emphasizing continuity at the expense of change and neglecting many historically unique features of the economy and society. Elements given short shrift in many current interpretations are reassigned their central roles.