Cover; Title; Copyright; CONTENTS; List of tables and maps; Extracts from reviews; Preface to the first edition; Preface to the second edition; Preface to the third edition; Note on sources; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Foreword The continuing debate on empire; PART ONE Introduction, 1688-1914; 1 The problem and the context; The historiographical setting; The argument; Gentility and the market; The evolution of the gentlemanly order; The manufacturing interest; The terms of the trade: expansion and imperialism; Ideology and methodology; Conclusion. 2 Prospective: aristocracy, finance and empire, 1688-1850Historiographical perspectives; The financial revolution: private interests and public virtues; The evolution of the military-fiscal state; Exporting the Revolution Settlement; Conclusion; PART TWO The gentlemanly order, 1850-1914; 3 'Something peculiar to England': the service sector, wealth and power, 1850-1914; Economic growth; Agricultural decline; Industry after 1850; The service sector; The new gentlemanly capitalists; The City of London and gentlemanly capitalism; Industry, provincialism and power. Gentlemanly capitalism and politicsAppendix One: economic interests and occupations of members of parliament, 1868-1914; 4 Gentlemanly capitalism and economic policy: City, government and the 'national interest', 1850-1914; Gladstonian finance; Gladstonianism, the Bank of England and the gold standard; The City of London and the national interest; The Baring Crisis and its resolution; Industry and economic policy; City and government in the nineteenth century; 5 'The great emporium': foreign trade and invisible earnings, 1850-1914; Commodity trade and foreign competition; Trade in services. Foreign investmentsCommerce, finance and free trade; 6 Two nations? Foreign investment and the domestic economy, 1850-1914; The City and foreign investment; Foreign investment and industry; Foreign investment and economic growth; Foreign investment and gentlemanly capitalism; 7 Challenging cosmopolitanism: the tariff problem and imperial unity, 1880-1914; Free trade and empire unity; Chamberlain and protectionism; Industry, the City and free trade; Cosmopolitanism and industrial decline; Appendix Two: manufacturing interests in parliament, 1868-1910; PART THREE The wider world, 1815-1914. 8 'An extension of the old society': Britain and the colonies of settlement, 1850-1914The international economy and the New World; Political liberty and financial dependence; Australasia; Canadian unity and British finance; Britain and the white empire after 1850; 9 Calling the New World into existence: South America, 1815-1914; A continental perspective; Argentina; Brazil; Chile; The spread of informal influence; 10 'Meeting her obligations to her English creditors': India, 1858-1914; Interpretations of the imperial purpose; Prelude, 1757-1857; The extension of the gentlemanly order.