In 1750 Bradford was a small market town of about 4000 inhabitants in the Yorkshire, West Riding. By 1850 it had become a major industrial city of 100,000, the international centre of the worsted production and trade. Behind this massive expansion of population there occurred a fundamental transformation of society. This book examines the process by which a capitalist society emerged in Bradford. Although Bradford represents an unusual social environment where industrial development began very early and proceeded very fast, its history discloses with unusual force and clarity a process that...