British society and the British economy underwent major structural change over the period from 1700 to 1850, as people moved from agriculture and rural life to industry and towns. Unlike previous textbooks on this period, written either from a social and political standpoint, or about economics in the abstract, this book incorporates the work of social and political historians with revisionist work on British economic growth.

It stresses the connections between the economy and debates over public policy, and examines the regional variations in agriculture and industry, with particular attention to the differences between England and Scotland. Much revisionist work concerns the operation of assumed national markets; the aim of the book is to show how these markets were formed, and how a national economy was created.