What do you think?
Rate this book
Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power, 1660-1800
A revelatory new history of Britain’s industrial revolution and the exploitation that enabled it
Was Britain’s industrial revolution the result of its machines, which produced goods with miraculous efficiency? Was it the country’s natural abundance, which provided coal for its engines, ores for its furnaces and food for its labourers? Or was it Britain’s colonies, where a brutalized enslaved workforce produced cotton for its factories?
Acclaimed historian Edmond Smith shows how the world’s first industrial nation was founded on the ruthless exploitation of technology, people and the planet. This economic system linked the plantations of the Caribbean with the colossal cotton mills of northern England, applied the innovations of science and agriculture to colonial exploration, and formalised financial markets in self-serving ways. At the heart of these processes were Britons themselves, early capitalists who spun webs of expertise and investment to connect exploitative practices across the globe.
Ruthless offers an eye-opening account of Britain’s economic transformation—and the scale and breadth of brutality that it depended upon.
Was Britain’s industrial revolution the result of its machines, which produced goods with miraculous efficiency? Was it the country’s natural abundance, which provided coal for its engines, ores for its furnaces and food for its labourers? Or was it Britain’s colonies, where a brutalized enslaved workforce produced cotton for its factories?
Acclaimed historian Edmond Smith shows how the world’s first industrial nation was founded on the ruthless exploitation of technology, people and the planet. This economic system linked the plantations of the Caribbean with the colossal cotton mills of northern England, applied the innovations of science and agriculture to colonial exploration, and formalised financial markets in self-serving ways. At the heart of these processes were Britons themselves, early capitalists who spun webs of expertise and investment to connect exploitative practices across the globe.
Ruthless offers an eye-opening account of Britain’s economic transformation—and the scale and breadth of brutality that it depended upon.
464 pages, Hardcover
Published January 6, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
May 24, 2026
I bought this on the basis of a review in the FT that my wife showed me. In the review was a mention of Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, a much better book I review elsewhere. It really wasn't clear whether Smith's was supposed to be a book on economic history or social history. Or something else. It's desperately short of data, as opposed to anecdote, and I'm not against anecdote. There are just three figures:
• GDP and GDP per head in Britain 1660-1800
• Total economic output from agriculture, industry and services in Britain, 1660-1800
• Number of captive people trafficked from Africa in ships owned by British slave-trading corporations and independent slave-trades [traders?] from London, Bristol and Liverpool, 1660-1810
I suppose you could say that the essential scheme of this book is that the causes of Britain's rise to wealth and power were multi-factorial. Who knew? There are may anecdotes here, some of them useful and interesting. But there's a lack of analysis and no real narrative argument.
There is a lot here about slavery. I got the feeling that there was a subtext that Britain would not have risen to wealth and power without the fruits of human trafficking. It doesn't say that in terms. But something about the tone and balance. The only chart of any input factor is that regarding slavery. I suppose that Smith would say he was honouring my usual dictum that authors should show not tell. But there's no analysis here. There's nothing to persuade that "but for" slavery Britain would not have become a great power. It's there. Britain benefited. But was it determinative? Or a material contribution? What were the opportunity costs? We're not told. This is nowhere near as good a book as A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, which is cited in Smith's bibliography.
The book is interesting in tracing the factors back to the mid-seventeenth century, even before the Glorious Revolution.
I just wanted some analysis.
• GDP and GDP per head in Britain 1660-1800
• Total economic output from agriculture, industry and services in Britain, 1660-1800
• Number of captive people trafficked from Africa in ships owned by British slave-trading corporations and independent slave-trades [traders?] from London, Bristol and Liverpool, 1660-1810
I suppose you could say that the essential scheme of this book is that the causes of Britain's rise to wealth and power were multi-factorial. Who knew? There are may anecdotes here, some of them useful and interesting. But there's a lack of analysis and no real narrative argument.
There is a lot here about slavery. I got the feeling that there was a subtext that Britain would not have risen to wealth and power without the fruits of human trafficking. It doesn't say that in terms. But something about the tone and balance. The only chart of any input factor is that regarding slavery. I suppose that Smith would say he was honouring my usual dictum that authors should show not tell. But there's no analysis here. There's nothing to persuade that "but for" slavery Britain would not have become a great power. It's there. Britain benefited. But was it determinative? Or a material contribution? What were the opportunity costs? We're not told. This is nowhere near as good a book as A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, which is cited in Smith's bibliography.
The book is interesting in tracing the factors back to the mid-seventeenth century, even before the Glorious Revolution.
I just wanted some analysis.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review