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This book approaches the history of railway building and its impact on economic change in a new way. Using a more granular approach than has been used in the past, based on detailed case studies, this book aims to establish the effect of railway building on local economies and individual sectors within those micro-economies. From the resulting analysis, it has been possible to extrapolate the nuanced changes, not always growth as has often been suggested, to other places.
While this book examines the micro-economies of one deliberately selected constrained area, the conclusions drawn from the research are relevant to the whole of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century. The findings are also relevant to other evolving economies, including those in Europe and the United States, throughout the nineteenth century.
The volume is aimed at undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars who are examining the economic and social history of the Victorian period. It would also be of value to business schools. This book has also been written to be an accessible history of nineteenth-century economic history, which will be of general interest to book sellers, librarians and the casual reader.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. Perceptions of Railway Building in Historical Study 3. Revisiting Research Methods for Railway and Business Relationships 4. The British and Berkshire Economies before the Railways 5. Introduction to the Case Studies and the Prevailing Business Landscape in Britain in the Nineteenth Century 6. Reading Case Study 7. Maidenhead Case Study 8. Newbury Case Study 9. Wokingham Case Study 10. Windsor Case Study 11. Abingdon Case Study 12. Wallingford Case Study 13. Wantage Case Study 14. The Railway and Its Direct Impact upon Industry 15. Reflections on Railway, Industry and Commerce Relationships
About the author
Dr. Richard Marks is an experienced published historian and is a departmental tutor in Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford. His areas of research interest include Victorian Britain, railway and military history. Richard recently completed a new History of British Rail Engineering Limited (2024).
