Before 1815, there had been no global world power. Today in the 21st century we have become used to living with a single dominant power. We are so used to this fact that no one questions it. It is possible that ancient China might have decided to become such a power; she had the technical shipbuilding knowledge, but she showed no interest. A world power needed a superior military force, a vibrant economy to support its military might, a navy able to travel across the world, and some purpose that encompassed the world.

During the 19th century, the world’s most powerful nations industrialised. Industrialisation was a historically unique process. Industrialisation involved the creation of  ‘infrastructure’, communication through roads, railways, and canals; the building of massive factories, producing a huge volume of goods, and most of society living close together in urban housing side by side. None of this had ever occurred before in all the world’s history. Britain was out in front in the 19th century as she led the way with industrialisation, however, the USA caught up, and Germany too by the end of the century from a slow start. All three societies came to Industrialisation through their unique histories, so there were many differences.

Monopoly or oligopoly exists when a very small number of huge enterprises dominate a marketplace. The chartered companies established in Europe in the late 16th century and continuing through to the end of the 19th were privatised monopoly companies, which allowed shareholding from outside wealthy individuals. The old feudal system had also created monopolies through land use, in feudal land tenure systems. Colonies created monopolies for the invading country. A colonial power had monopoly importing and exporting rights.

In one sense, each growing economy in Europe adapted its own banking to its particular needs. Britain, the leading 19th century nation in Europe, developed its private banking structure for the needs of colonial trade: long-term capital investment opportunities abroad. Germany, on the other hand, developed its banking structure with the purpose of 'catching up'.

Money was to become the lifeblood of the industrialised world. This lifeblood would require a heart to pump the money around. An understanding of money, finance and banking is at the very centre of understanding our capitalist world to this day. In the 19th century, the monetary system was the servant of industry, but over time the monetary system became the master of industry. This blog focuses on money, markets, and banking in the 19th century.

Industrialisation during the 19th century historically changed the world for all the people living in France Holland the UK and the USA; by the end of the century city living and industrial work had become the new normal. Japan and Germany followed in the 2nd half of the century. At the beginning in 1800, the world’s populations had been predominantly rural: by 1900 one hundred years later the few wealthy independent European and American nations had become mainly urban. The processes of manufacture and transport had vitally altered everyone’s lives. Even the understanding of time itself had been altered.

The growth of 19th century manufacturing was built on the back of Enslaved People, the taxes of Indian peasants and the subsequent impoverishment of the Indian peoples. Enslaved peoples provided cotton, the raw material, from which industrial textile manufacturing became the leading product of the industrial revolution. The money derived from Indian taxpayers became the backbone of the City of London.

The Haitian Revolution and the anti-slavery movement led by Britain might have been a watershed movement in the slave trade as a whole. It wasn't, however. Slave owners and West Indian island administrators were certainly terrified of new political risings by slaves. The movement in Britain to be rid of the slave trade needs to be understood in the context of religious movements within Britain itself. Many British historians have emphasised the moral high ground, as British legislation outlawed both the trade in slaves and slavery itself in 1807 and 1833…

The key expansionary players up to 1815 had been Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Holland, Russia, and the Ottomans. Only two of all these “great powers” - the Russians and the Ottomans - survived this revolutionary moment relatively unscathed. Spain France and Portugal lost most of their Colonies Only Britain survived with its Colonial power intact and its world role huge extended. 1750 to 1815, can usefully be understood as the first global struggle for Colonial dominance.  The second 1914 to 1945 was to come.

All progressive movements - such as the Haitian and later the Russian Revolutions - were deeply resented by the established authorities, and in 1815 the British, the Russians and the Ottomans attempted to replace the fallen monarchies. In this blog our aim is to examine the underlying causes which set the French Revolution in action. The sudden turmoil and revolutionary wars which consumed all of Europe after 1793 were a direct consequence of the French Revolution and loosened the ropes which held the feudal system of government in place…

Racism was the ideology that accompanied Colonial invasions over these long 500 years. Racism was also the backbone of ideas that accompanied industrialisation. The ideology provided the perfect explanation for the people who dominated globally; at the same time as they created new inventions technologically. The people involved assumed that they were a superior ‘breed’ of people. The French, Dutch, British and latterly the Americans absorbed racist ideas as the ‘natural’ order. The ideas of race and the racism that sprang from these ideas permeated Nations, so whole peoples assumed their innate superiority.

We need to ask and understand what are the necessary conditions for a society to transform itself so that it can industrialise? This question is perhaps one of the critical issues of history. In this blog, I examine what transformation entails for society and what conditions are necessary for this to occur. The components needed for transformation include the following occurring more or less simultaneously: 1. The reformation of ideas. Everywhere old ideas, in particular, religious frameworks are challenged…

The transformation from an ancient society towards an industrial urban capitalist world has nearly always been a revolutionary process which has torn society apart. The almost complete breakdown of societies in the multi-layered wars between the 1780s and 1815, and then from 1914 to 1945, reflect these long-term processes at work. At the end of both periods, not only was the world a very different place with many millions of people dead, but many of the necessary conditions towards the industrial urban capitalist world had also been established.

The twin historical forces of colonialism and capitalism ‘destroyed’ much of the ancient social, economic, ideological and political systems of the world and transformed it. Today we call this ‘progress’. Progress did not happen all at once, of course. People, states, and governments resisted over long periods, but in the end, most peoples were overwhelmed…