Lancashire in Decline

Summary

The spectacular growth of the cotton industry in Lancashire from the mid-eighteenth century to the early years of the twentieth century was one of the major reasons behind Britain's emergence as the world's leading industrial power during this period. Whilst the industry flourished the economy enjoyed general prosperity, but its disastrous decline after the First World War led to severe depression. In this impressive study of Professor Sandberg has assembled a diverse range of data to examine the claims that the industry's decline was due to technological backwardness and managerial ineptitude. He concludes that these were not he chief factors in the starting collapse of the industry, and that decline was in fact due to rapidly changing international circumstances from which none of hte world's economies were immune.