The United Kingdom in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Maturity and Relative Decline

Abstract

The main task of this chapter is to explain and use a set of macroeconomic time-series tools to describe the performance of the UK macroeconomy in the 1850–1910 period. There are some new topics here, but the emphasis is on material (and controversies) already in the literature for the most part. We will have some cross-country comparisons, as well, but most of these will be with the United States, as is the fashion in the literature. Later chapters will make the obvious European comparisons where, indeed, Britain often provides the benchmark. This is particularly the case in Chapter 8.