The spectre of the Industrial Revolution haunts our understanding of the English economy in the eighteenth century. In the fashion of Whig history, there has been a tendency to concentrate on those parts of the economy which were developing most quickly and making the most significant contribution to industrialisation and economic growth. Remembering the old cliché that history is written by the victors not the vanquished, this is largely to be expected. Consequently, we have been told about the growth of foreign trade, the expansion of home demand, the wave of gadgets, the surge of capital formation, the rise of population and urbanisation, the revolution in agriculture and of the achievements of entrepreneurs. In short, the eighteenth-century economy has often been seen as a success story and as a place in which to uncover the origins of the Industrial Revolution. Nowhere has this been more true than in studies of business enterprise and the role of businessmen in economic growth. That role is often enough described in terms of success and achievement, usually with reference to the great and the famous. Yet if we try to rid ourselves of hindsight, then the likes of Wedgwood and Arkwright become just a part of the story. Alongside such heroes stood more mortal businessmen. This book adopts a less optimistic perspective, arguing that enterprise can be properly understood only when due regard is paid to bankruptcy and that the undoubted success of business expansion over the century has to be placed in the context of the possibility and reality of such bankruptcy.