War and Economy

During the two decades following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the balance of power in Europe shifted decisively northwards. England and Russia achieved Great Power status for the first time and the Spanish and Portuguese hegemony in world trade was ended. In "War and Economy" D.W. Jones, drawing on extensive original research, attempts to explain how it was that the English economy not only sustained 20 years of constant overseas warfare but emerged immeasurably stronger at the end of it. The story is as complex as it is fascinating: English survival in the 1690's depended on what went on in lonely cottages in Northumberland and Westmorland, and Marlborough's series of victories in the 1700s was materially influenced by events and places as far afield as Brazil and India. The author also shows, and for the first time, what was involved in the mobilization of post-Revolutionary England in a war that involved almost every European nation. The effects of war on national economies are substantial but by no means what the protagonists always expect.
This pioneering study of two decades of economic and military turmoil and of fundamental change in England and Europe should prove of equal interest to economic, social and military historians. The book should be of interest to historians and economic historians.