A study of the miscalculations of the figures for "world" history employed by statistically-minded historians. It is the product, primarily, of the resources of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, aiming to show the great misuse of numbers and the fragility of the conclusions derived from them.

For too long there has been an unquestioning acceptance that Britain's economic decline began long before the First World War. By focusing on international trade in the 1873-1914 period this book analyses the facts behind this myth, examining Britain's performance in comparison with that of its major rivals in the very areas where they came into competition with each other. What emerges is a much more complex picture of both losses and gains, in which Britain's position gradually adjusted to a changing world economic order, and appeared to be doing so remarkably successfully.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.