1992/12/01 by Brian Girvin
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Historical Economic and Social Studies
paper · doi:10.1016/0191-6599(92)90128-y
openalex publication_date 1992/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Between 1760 and f85O the world was radka~~alty transformed. The ofd world was challenged by ~ndustr~aIjsation, nationalism and mass democratic politics, and often shattered by the consequences. The impact ofso~~oe~onom~~ change, unleashed by the industrial revolution, reverberated throughout the 19th century. Nowhere was this more apparent or more cetebrated than in i economic change undermined traditional markets and production, often condemning the populations to extreme poverty as a consequence. In Britain itself, the new age of expansion was generally believed to defiver benefits to the society, though the benefits of industriaji~tion were dist~buted unevenly, There was a sense that an age of progress had dawned which carried with it the possibility of further growth and opportunity. L What is often described as modernism afso takes on characteristic form during this period. Emphasising a belief in progress, liberalism and secularism at an intellectual level, it is underwritten at a more fundamental level by technological change, demographic transformation and capitalist accumulation. Not only did Europe change, but the rate of change accelerated leading by the end of the 19th century to the consolidation in a number of states of what Giddens has called ‘capitalist society’. Capitalist industria~~sat~o~ leading to ‘capitalist society’ is marked by a qua&at&e shift not only in economic relations from those which preceded it, but a&o lays the foundation for similar shift in a politic& social and cultural norms. Integraf to this phenomenon is a novel relationship between the state, the economy and the nation: