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Elizabeth Gaskell might have been amused to learn that the Victorian 'elegant economy' she mocked so poignantly in Cranford reached a new apogee in the mid-twentieth century and endured the invasion of its precise antithesis, 'conspicuous consumption'. For Britons of all classes the years of austerity during and after the Second World War were years of disorientation and fears of resurgence of the worst of the interwar decades. They had never had more money in their pockets or less material things on which to spend it. Many took refuge in the 'elegant economy', its creator dubbed 'a sort of sour-grapeism, which made us very peaceful and satisfied'. Constrained by rationing, manufacturing and import controls personal finance could only be disbursed on non-material things - sometimes wisely, sometimes pragmatically and sometimes by throwing all caution to the wind. Here for the first time is the history of these diverse reactions explored through Britain's metamorphosis from austerity to affluence, with consumerism seen through fresh eyes. Today political commentators constantly warn of the encroachment of austerity. This book is a timely reminder of the years of real austerity in Britain: when regardless of financial status everyone suffered its tribulations: when a 'sub-prime' mortgage was unimaginable: when abuse of expense claims by public figures was unthinkable: and when no one dared utter a word critical of their bank or its manager.

For most of the twentieth century, the Conservative Party engaged in an ongoing struggle to curb the power of the trade unions, culminating in the radical legislation of the Thatcher governments. Yet, as this book shows, for a brief period between the end of the Second World War and the election of Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1964, the Conservative Party adopted a remarkably constructive and conciliatory approach to the trade unions, dubbed 'voluntarism'. During this time the party leadership made strenuous efforts to avoid, as far as was politically possible, confrontation with, or legislation against, the trade unions, even when this incurred the wrath of some Conservative backbenchers and the Party's mass membership. In explaining why the Conservative leadership sought to avoid conflict with the trade unions, this study considers the economic circumstances of the period in question, the political environment, electoral considerations, the perspective adopted by the Conservative leadership in comprehending industrial relations and explaining conflict in the workplace, and the personalities of both the Conservative leadership and the key figures in the trade unions. Making extensive use of primary and archival sources it explains why the 1945-64 period was unique in the Conservative Party's approach to Britain's trade unions. By 1964, though, even hitherto Conservative defenders of voluntarism were acknowledging that some form of official inquiry into the conduct and operation of trade British unionism, as a prelude to legislation, was necessary, thereby signifying that the heyday of 'voluntarism' and cordial relations between senior Conservatives and the trade unions was coming to an end.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Tables -- General Editor's Preface -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- PART I: AN OVERVIEW -- 1 Business Organization and the British Economy in the 1920s -- 2 Government Policy and the Rationalization of Industry in the 1920s -- 3 The Labour Government and the Rationalization of Industry, 1929-31 -- 4 The National Government and Industry, 1931-9 -- PART II: CASE STUDIES -- 5 The Reorganization of Coal -- 6 The Reorganization of Steel -- 7 The Reorganization of Cotton -- 8 The Reorganization of Shipbuilding -- 9 Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables, Graphs and Equations -- List of Abbreviations -- List of Abbreviations of Archival Sources and Published Sources -- General Editor's Preface -- Preface -- Introduction: Britain and the economic problem of the cold war: Themes and questions -- Part I: The political economy of British defence expenditure -- 1 Securing the People's Peace: Reflections on the anachronistic nature of the British warfare state in the early cold war, 1945-55 -- 2 An antagonistic partnership: Britain and American economic assistance, 1945-50 -- 3 'Tied to the tail of a Kilkenny cat'?: The Anglo-American relationship, British rearmament and the political crisis of 1951 -- Part II: British defence production policy -- 4 'The next war is bound to come': Defence production policy, supply departments and defence contractors in Britain, 1945-57 -- 5 The wasting of high technological potential?: The British warfare state, the aircraft industry and technological nationalism, 1950-58 -- 6 Maintaining the war potential: Rearmament and productivity in the British ammunition industry in the 1950s -- Part III: The economic impact of British defence expenditure -- 7 The British defence effort and investment during the transition from war to peace, 1945-55 -- 8 Britain and the economic impact of the Korean war -- 9 Too much defence, too little peace production?: The British capital-goods industry, regional development and the Korean war rearmament -- Conclusion: Britain and the economic problem of the first cold war: Reconsidering the political economy and economic impact of British defence expenditure, 1945-55 -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Maps -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- General Editor's Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Fire Insurance and British Economic Growth, 1700-1850 -- Part I -- 2 The Fire Insurance Markets of Georgian London -- 3 Provincial Fire Insurance in the Eighteenth Century -- 4 Insurance in Wartime, 1782-1815 -- 5 Insurance in and out of Crisis, 1815-50 -- Part II -- 6 Company Foundation -- 7 Marketing -- 8 Underwriting -- 9 Investments -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Series Editor's Preface -- Preface -- A note on the text -- Dedication -- Introduction: significance and agenda -- 1. Thomas Robert Malthus: overview of his life, thought and influence -- The early years and the 1798 Essay -- Ascendancy 1803-17 -- Shifting positions: 1817-21 -- The later years: 1821-34 -- 2. Harriet Martineau: the female Malthusian? -- A disciple of Malthus -- Divergence from her mentor -- Hostile reception -- Gender bias: Martineau and Marcet compared -- 3. Cobbett against the Parson -- The relevance of Malthus -- Against Malthusian theory -- The rejection of Malthusian solutions -- Significance and impact -- 4. The radical working-class press against the Malthusian crew -- The pauper press -- Echoes of Cobbett against Malthus -- Beyond the master of invective: the new ideology -- Beyond the master of invective: birth control -- Malthus's reaction -- Final reflections -- Conclusion -- References -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- General Editor's preface -- Abbreviations -- Photograph credits -- Introduction: theories, models and approaches -- Part I Inventing the Armstrong Gun, 1854-65 -- 1 War, friends and competitors -- 2 The naval arms revolution -- 3 Defending England: monster guns or iron ships? -- Part II Making the Global Arms Market, 1863-1914 -- Introduction -- 4 World demand and Elswick's marketing -- 5 Arming America and Europe in the age of nationalism -- 6 Arming Asia in the age of imperialism -- Part III Remaking British Naval Power, 1880-1914 -- Introduction -- 7 The naval-industrial complex -- 8 The political-industrial complex -- 9 Entrepreneurs, managers and the British state -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index

The history of Russian economic ideas from the sixteenth century to contemporary times is a fascinating, tumultuous yet neglected topic among Western scholars. Whilst over the last 15 years increasing amounts of work has been done on the subject, co-operation between Russian and Western researchers in this field leaves much to be desired. In order to improve this situation, this volume unites Russian and non-Russian researchers together to provide an overview of the current state of the topic and to give a stimulus for further research. Bringing together scholars from the UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Finland and Russia, the collection puts forward differing, yet complimentary, perspectives on the long-term history of Russian economic ideas. Offering a broad collection of articles covering the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, authors have approached the subject from diverse theoretical angles. Contributions in the tradition of Blaug and Schumpeter focusing on economic analysis in a narrower sense, and contributions that - in line with authors like Pribram or Perlman/McCann - deal with economic thought in the context of history and culture, are all represented. In terms of content, the editors have encouraged approaches that represent different economic traditions in order to encourage a diversity of opinions on the national development of Russian economics. As such the volume offers a broad and very relevant assessment of the subject for both historians and economists alike.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Notes on Contributors -- General Editor's Preface -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part 1 From 'Manchester Manufacturer' to 'English Hero' -- 1 Phrenological Friends: Cobden and his 'father confessor' George Combe -- 2 From warehouse Clerk to Corn Law Celebrity: The Making of a National Hero -- Part 2 Cobden and Liberal Politics in Britain -- 3 Cobden and Democracy -- 4 Cobden, Free Trade in Land, and the Road to the Abbey National -- 5 Cobden and the Press -- Part 3 Reconfiguring the Political Economy of Liberal Europe -- 6 'La Ligue Française': The Anti-Corn Law League and the Campaign for Economic Liberalism in France during the last days of the July Monarchy -- 7 The Cobdenian Moment in the Italian Risorgimento -- 8 'Not Entirely a Manchester Man': Richard Cobden and the Construction of Manchesterism in Nineteenth-Century German Economic Thinking -- 9 Greek Responses to Cobden -- Part 4 Reconstructing the 'International Man' -- 10 Richard Cobden: The International Man -- 11 Cobden and Peace -- 12 Richard Cobden's American Quandary: Negotiating Peace, Free Trade, and Anti-Slavery -- Part 5 Reinventing Richard Cobden -- 13 'You know your father's heart': The Cobden Sisterhood and the Legacy of Richard Cobden -- 14 Between Feudalists and Communists: Louis Mallet and the Cobden Creed -- 15 The Resurrection and Decomposition of Cobden in Britain and the west: An Essay in the Politics of Reputation -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figure and Tables -- General Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Technological and Business Development: British Machine Tools and the American Challenge, 1890-1914 -- 3 'A War of Machinery': The British Machine Tool Industry, 1914-18 -- 4 Meeting the Challenge: Alfred Herbert and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1918-34 -- 5 A Call to Arms: The British Machine Tool Industry, 1935-40 -- 6 The Second World War and the British Machine Tool Industry -- 7 The Changing 'Game': The British Machine Tool Industry, 1945-60 -- 8 Responding to the 'Game': Modernisation and the British Machine Tool Industry in the 1960s -- 9 Business Strategy and Business Structure: Alfred Herbert 1950-70 -- 10 The 'End Game': The British Machine Tool Industry in the 1970s, and the Fall of Alfred Herbert -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures and tables -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: Raleigh and the British bicycle industry -- 2 Boom, bust and progress: the British bicycle industry, 1870-1914 -- 3 Frank Bowden and the making of the Raleigh Cycle Co., c. 1887-1914 -- 4 The 'golden age' of cycling: depression and recovery in the inter-war years -- 5 From father to son: Harold Bowden and entrepreneurial 'optimism' at Raleigh, 1914-39 -- 6 Progress and challenge: the British bicycle industry in the post-war years, 1945-60 -- 7 Triumphs and adversities: Raleigh Industries Ltd, 1939-60 -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index of business firms and leading business men -- Subject and author index