Customs and Excise: Trade, Production, and Consumption in England, 1640-1845

Ashworth traces the growth of customs and excise, and their integral role in shaping the framework of industrial England. He examines their influence on elements such as state power, technical advance, and the evolution of a consumer society. If there was a unique pathway of industrialization, it was less a distinct entrepreneurial and techno-centric culture, than one predominantly defined within an institutional framework spearheaded by the excise and a wall of tariffs.