This book is the outcome of research begun in Oxford in the years 1962–5, and its completion owes a good deal to the kindly advice of my supervisors, Dr Max Hartwell, of Nuffield College, and Mr Michael Brock, of Wolfson College. My debt to Dr Hartwell has been further increased by his generous offer to provide an introduction to this, my first book. Among other scholars who have helped me, I must particularly thank Dr W. H. Chaloner, of Manchester University, for allowing me at the outset of my research to draw on his vast knowledge of the source materials for English industrial history, and Mr John Prest, of Balliol College, who at a later stage offered detailed criticisms of my original draft. Last but by no means least, it is a pleasure to record my gratitude to Mr A. F. Thompson, of Wadham College, who first aroused my undergraduate interest in the history of England in the nineteenth century, and who has been an unfailing source of encouragement and reassurance during the past six years.

I was courteously received at many Libraries and Record Offices in Lancashire, Oxford, and London in the course of working on the scattered materials which have gone into this book, but I am especially obliged to Misses Lofthouse and Leach, of Chetham's Library, Manchester, whose helpfulness much exceeds anything that one can reasonably expect.