LibGuides: History: Economic and Social History

Introduction to Economic and Social History

Cambridge has been a leading centre for the study of economic and social history since the pioneering work of William Cunningham and Ellen McArthur in the 1890s on the industrial history of Britain, with more recent developments of cultural history being closely connected with social and economic structures. We study regions across the globe, from the medieval to the modern age. We are committed to collaborative work on economic, social and cultural themes and methodologies. The history of the economy, society and culture often being inseparable from the history of power and its uses and institutions, we also study policy and politics. Our members are linked with the History and Policy website, the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, the Centre for History and Economics, the Centre for Financial History, the Labour History Cluster, and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Cambridge University Libraries boasts a large and varied collection of both physical and digital resources to help you in your studies. This includes books, online databases, newspapers, official publications, journals, and much more. Here in the Seeley, texts on Economic and Social History can be found across the library, though the sections '10 - European Economic & Social History', 'HB - Economic theory. Demography' 'HC - Economic history and conditions', for History, '5 - Statistics and Econometrics', '7 - Sociology', '10 - Economics', in Land Economy, and '27 - Economic Life: Sociological Aspects.' in POL-SOC may be of specific interest, as well as various topics within the Latin American Studies collection.

You also have access to the University Library (UL), where the classmark range 500-698 covers Geography and History and is then organised by region, all Faculty Department Libraries (FDLs), and your own College Library, so explore these for useful books and resources as well.

As with any library, searching on iDiscover for the text, journal or database that you require is a good starting point, and if you have any questions then please reach out to a member of staff who would be happy to assist.

Seeley Library Economic and Social History Collection

Audio-Visual Material

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: 1897 Poster
Subject(s): Universities and colleges--History
Origin Place: Cambridge
Date of Creation: 1897
Extent: 5 posters
Format: Poster

The Rising Tide : Posters from 1897, for and against the granting of women degrees 1897

Ethnographic Sound Archives Online | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate

Home - Mass Observation Online - Mass Observation Online

Archives of Sexuality and Gender

Home - EUscreen

Marshall Library

Africa research bulletin. Economic, financial, and technical series

The Indian Economic and Social History Review

The Economist

Faculty of History - Economic and Social History Research Seminars

MPhil and PhD students attend research seminars alongside more senior academics. For economic, social and cultural history, the most relevant seminars and event series are:

African Economic History The African Economic History Seminar began in January 2018; as far as we know, the only regular research seminar dedicated to the subject anywhere in the world (we would be delighted to be corrected!). The presenters illustrate the breadth of the field, in both subject and method. Each year we have four or five meetings, solely or mostly in the Lent term (mid-January to mid-March). Papers are often circulated for reading in advance, to people who commit to attending the seminar. The convenors are grateful for the support of the G. M. Trevelyan Fund. The 2024 series will be hybrid. If you are in Cambridge, we would appreciate it if you come along in person! The Zoom link will be sent to everyone on the seminar mailing list. To subscribe, wherever you are in the world, please visit https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/event-series/african-economic-history. Whether online or in person, where possible, the speaker provides a paper in advance, which will be sent to those committing themselves to attending.
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In Michaelmas term we participate in the Core Seminar in Economic and Social History
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure This seminar showcases new work in historical demography, household structure, and welfare systems, and the relationships between these phenomena and economic development and social inequalities, in any historical society and period. The Cambridge Group for the History of Population & Social Structure is an interdisciplinary research group founded in 1964: more information can be found here. This seminar does not run in Michaelmas Term. It participates in the Core seminar in economic and social history The support of the Trevelyan Fund (Faculty of History) is gratefully acknowledged.
Early Modern Economic and Social History Our seminar is interested in social and economic aspects of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, in any part of the globe. We meet in the Faculty building on alternate Thursdays in Lent Term and in Easter Term. The convenors welcome suggestions for speakers. This seminar does not take place in Michaelmas Term. It is one of the contributors to the Core seminar in economic and social history We normally have dinner with the speaker afterwards, to which all are welcome.
Financial History The Financial History Seminar runs mainly in the Lent term. All seminars are open to the public. Financial History Seminars are held at 5pm at Darwin College unless otherwise stated. The most up-to-date information is available on our page at talks.cam (https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/20854).
Global Economic History The Global Economic History Seminar began in April 2017. It is intended to showcase and discuss papers that examine comparisons and connections between or across major world regions, and also to represent current research in different regions, especially of the Global South (including single-country papers). Each year we have four or five meetings, solely or mostly in first four or five weeks of the Easter term (April-May). People not physically in Cambridge are welcome to join us. Note that to receive the Zoom link -- and the paper, if available -- you need to subscribe to the seminar email list; to do so, see under ‘At A Glance’, and please remember to give your first and last names and any institutional or company affiliation. The convenors are grateful for the support of the G.M. Trevelyan Fund.
History and Economics The Joint Cambridge History and Economics seminar meets jointly with other seminars on *Thursdays* at 17:15 (GMT) in Michaelmas Term as part of the Core seminar in Economic and Social History. The History and Economics Seminar reconvenes in Lent Term. The Joint Harvard Center for History and Economics (Cambridge, Harvard and Sciences Po Paris) hosts a hybrid in-person/online seminar on Wednesdays at 17:00 (GMT). The generous support of the David K. and Carol Richards Fund is gratefully acknowledged.
Medieval Economic and Social History Cambridge has a strong tradition in the economic and social history of the middle ages, and this seminar has long been at the heart of it. While its focus remains the history of the British Isles, the seminar has recently begun to expand its geographical scope to feature work on the economies and societies of continental Europe and beyond. This seminar does not run in Michaelmas Term. It participates in the Core seminar in economic and social history The support of the Trevelyan Fund (Faculty of History) is gratefully acknowledged.
Modern Cultural History The Modern Cultural History Seminar has a twenty-year history of stretching the boundaries of the field in all the new ways the field seems to be heading, with recent attention paid to history of the emotions, space and place, the social sciences in cultural context, and cultures of race, gender and sexuality. Most of our papers are in British history since the late 18th century, but we try to feature comparative work as well, and in recent years we have had papers in French, Australian, American and South Asian cultural history as well, especially where transnational themes are involved. A postgraduate-run workshop in Modern Cultural History meets in alternate weeks. The support of the G.M. Trevelyan Fund for external speakers is gratefully acknowledged.
Quantitative History This seminar does not run in Michaelmas Term. It participates in the Core seminar in economic and social history.

Journals

Africa research bulletin. Economic, financial, and technical series. Africa Research Bulletin is the leading bulletin service on Africa, appearing in two series - Political, Social and Cultural, and Economic, Financial and Technical - available separately or in a combined subscription. The coverage of the Economic, Financial and Technical series includes: Continental Developments, Policy and Practice, Communications and Transport, Commodities, Industries and Economic Aid, with countries and regional entities listed alphabetically within each of these main sections. All sources are acknowledged and each issue is comprehensively indexed. Fact and comment are drawn from a large range of local press, radio and on-line sources. These are complemented with information from international organizations, the world press, news agencies and the World Wide Web. ARB provides a balance of comment and opinion from local and international sources which monitor future trends and developments. Used together, the accumulated knowledge of the Political and Economic Bulletins give readers an in-depth understanding of Africa since 1964.
Economic and social progress in Latin America. Published by the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Indian economic and social history review. The Indian Economic and Social History Review has been a meeting ground for scholars whose concerns span diverse cultural and political themes with a bearing on social and economic history. It is the foremost journal devoted to the study of the social and economic history of India, and South Asia more generally. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Irish economic and social history Irish Economic and Social History, the journal of The Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, has published annually since 1974 and has given a marked impetus to professional publication in the field. The journal promotes research and developments in the teaching of economic and social history of Ireland and the Irish overseas, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It comprises articles and shorter notes; review articles; abstracts of recent postgraduate theses; book reviews; and a bibliography of writings on Irish economic and social history appearing in the previous year.
Journal of social and economic development. The Journal of Social and Economic Development provides a comprehensive platform for research and analysis in the fields of social and economic development, with a particular focus on issues that impact emerging economies and underrepresented communities. In addition to publishing high quality contributions on economic modelling with a strong theoretical and conceptual foundation, the journal discusses developmental issues that focus on viable institutional structures and good governance. It seeks to advance scholarly discourse on topics that bridge economic theories, policy implications, and social dynamics, with a commitment to promoting sustainable, inclusive growth worldwide. It also provides a platform for debate and discussion on policy matters.
Scottish economic & social history. The Journal of Scottish Historical Studies is the journal of the Economic & Social History Society of Scotland, publishing the very best research in the rich social, economic and cultural history of Scotland and Scottishness, as well as historical geography, anthropology and historical theory. It is primarily engaged with the ways in which Scottish people of the past lived, worked and played.
Social and Economic Studies Social and Economic Studies (ISSN 0037-7651) is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that has been published continuously since 1953. Produced by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), it features articles reflecting current academic research of a developmental nature on a wide range of issues in the Caribbean, Latin America and the rest of the Global South. SES is multi-disciplinary in orientation and publishes articles and research on agricultural, anthropological, demographic, economic, educational, monetary, political, cultural and sociological questions with a view to analyzing and discussing the problems of less developed countries, particularly those in the Caribbean. Our intended audience would consist of academics, policy-makers and informed members of the general public.
World economic and social survey / Department of Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis. The World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) provides objective analysis of pressing long-term social and economic development issues, and discusses the positive and negative impact of corresponding policies.

Research Projects

The causes and consequences of financial crises in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, c.1801-1922. This project will investigate the importance of financial crises in the United Kingdom’s history from 1801 onwards. The novelty of this project is that it looks at the economic causes of these crises, as well as their political consequences for the histories of Britain, Ireland and the wider British Empire. In terms of causes, it will show for the first time how an economic-policy regime change in Britain in the early 19th century contributed to a series of severe financial crises in the UK between 1825 and 1866, by exposing the British economy to international capital flows that imposed constraints on monetary and fiscal action by British government. In terms of the consequences, the project explores how these constraints stopped the British government from deploying policies to counteract asymmetric shocks on Ireland and other parts of the British Empire. Exploring these questions together will transform how historians look at economic policy in Victorian Britain. Macroeconomic policies designed in the early 1800s to promote the stability and cohesiveness of the UK, instead damaged the Union by resulting in financial instability, particularly in Ireland. The project will provide a new explanation of the rise and fall of financial instability in Victorian Britain and Ireland, as well as breaking down the disciplinary divides between political history and economic history, Britain history and Irish history, and the history of Britain and the history of the British Empire. Financial crises were not just footnotes in the histories of Britain, Ireland and the British Empire in the 19th century; they played a major role in historical change, a role that this project will expose. This fellowship is funded by the British Academy
Democracy, Family, and Religious-Customary Law in South Asia This project demonstrates how the codification of religious personal laws permitted state to enter into intimate dialogue with citizens on their domestic lives, which was largely mediated through religion in post colonial India. Questions of secularism, constitutionalism, rights of minorities and women dominated the political and judicial discourses in independent India and produced contestations which were formative of India’s democracy. Family law, arguably the most visible sphere of such contestation, emerged as a particularly hospitable arena for conversations between religious and legal regimes. The project analyses how the attempts to translate marriage and divorce laws and customs of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities into codes and statutes contributed to a unique evolution of both, the rule of law, and the doctrine of secularism in twentieth-century India. This fellowship is funded by the British Academy.
Engaged Economists. Politics, Profession and Economics in the Left-wing Commitment, 1930s-1960s The research project explores the interweaving between engagement, profession and economic ideas in order to better understand how the identity and the role of economists in society are shaped and evolve. It adopts a transnational-comparative prosopographical – both qualitative and quantitative – approach, taking as its focus the economists’ engagement in the communist, socialist and labour lefts in France, United Kingdom and Italy, from the 1930s to the 1960s. By engagement, ENGECON means a partisan activism linked to the participation in public debate that contributes to the legitimization, dissemination and elaboration of economic ideas. Three principal specific objectives are studied: the factors explaining engagement; the practices of engagement; the implications of engagement for the economic thought, as well as the professional trajectory and the intellectual status of the economists.
Everyday Travel and Community in Early Modern England This British Academy-funded project traces patterns of everyday travel in early modern England to recover social and economic communities beyond the boundary of the village, parish, or town. Scholarship identifies high migration and parish population turnover in England during this period; yet historians continue to locate the social and economic communities to which ordinary people belonged within a highly localised framework, characterising the early modern village as self-contained. To access their spatial experiences and identities, this project investigates the quotidian journeys that men and women across the social spectrum recounted in court depositions between 1550 and 1700. Divided into three strands, the project analyses the nature of everyday travel (investigating who made journeys, how far they travelled and for what purpose); the influence of topography and landscape on cross-parish socio-economic networks; and the extent to which infrastructure and transportation determined the scale and experience of everyday travel in early modern England.
Regional inequalities in long-term perspective: demographic outcomes in Britain c. 1580 – 1837 England is the only national population for which we have truly long-demographic data (for the last 500 years), thanks to the work of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. However at the sub-national level our understanding of regional variations in fertility, nuptiality and mortality patterns remains very weak before the mid-nineteenth century. The original 26 parish sample that forms the basis of our detailed knowledge of demographic behaviours in England before 1837 included only three northern and six midland parishes, and geographical variations in fertility, mortality and nuptiality were largely unexplored. Scotland and Wales were never included in the exercise. This project, funded by the Marc Fitch Fund, is the first step in a larger project to redress this southern bias. We will digitise and analyse three family reconstitution datasets that currently exist only in paper format, for the northern parishes of Aughton (Lancashire), and Kildwick (Yorkshire West Riding), and the midlands parish of Matlock (Derbyshire). We will also scope Scottish and Welsh archives for high quality parish registers. This work will lay the basis for a more substantial application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council to investigate spatial heterogeneities in demographic behaviour and outcomes in Britain before 1837. In the eighteenth century (before vaccination), smallpox was a childhood disease in northern England (and Scotland), but a rare epidemic disease in southern England (Davenport et al., Social Science and Medicine, 206 (2018), pp.75-85, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.04.019

Audio-Visual Material

Cambridge Digital Library - The Marshall Library
The Marshall Library now plays a central role in supporting the teaching, learning and research of the Faculty of Economics and sustaining the Faculty's international reputation as a centre of excellence in the subject. It currently has a collection of over 100,000 volumes containing 60,000 books and includes archives and special collections. In order to make our special collections more accessible to researchers we hope to make some of the items available digitally. We are starting with this recent donation of an original proof of the first edition of Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics.
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The origins of the present Marshall Library lie in the small Moral Sciences Library created by Professor Alfred Marshall and Professor Henry Sidgwick from 1885 onwards, largely through the donation of their own books for student use. This library was situated in the Divinity School opposite St. John's College. Following the struggle to establish Political Economy as a subject in its own right, the Economics books were transferred to the keeping of the Special Board for Economics and Politics in 1906. In 1909 J.M. Keynes became the first formally appointed Librarian of the collection, thereafter known as the Departmental Library of Economics.
Alfred Marshall died in 1924, leaving many of his books and money to the Library. The two collections were merged and re-named the "Marshall Library of Economics" in his memory. Alfred's widow, Mary Paley Marshall acted as a volunteer librarian for nearly twenty years, until she retired at the age of 87. From 1925 until her death in 1944 she gave £250 annually to the library. In addition, she bequeathed £10,000 to the University "for the development and increased usefulness of the Marshall Library". The final move to the present building in Sidgwick Avenue, which was designed by Sir Hugh Casson, took place in the early sixties.
Cambridge Digital Library - The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge
2019 marked 150 years since the founding of Girton College, the first women’s college at Cambridge, and the first in Britain to offer residential higher education for women. This moment of equality was however, short lived. Any ‘firsts’ in women’s education Cambridge could claim were undermined by the length of time it took the University to award women the degree, not doing so until 1948; it was the last British university to do so. This major breakthrough was hard won, as was equality in education, pay, and a say in how the university is administered.
Indeed, the University we see today is much different from the one encountered by those first Girtonians. And it was campaigning women who helped shaped an institution that has changed its ideas about what a university ought to be, what it should teach, and what an academic career should look like. Here is a selection of items from across the University Library, college, and private collections that reflect the history of women at Cambridge.

Ethnographic Sound Archives Online This link opens in a new window
Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together previously unpublished historic audio recordings and their supporting field materials, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context. The collection brings together 2,000 hours of audio recordings from field expeditions around the world, particularly from the 1960s through the 1980s—the dawn of ethnomusicology as a codified discipline
Ethnographic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Alexander Street is the most comprehensive resource for visual anthropology in the world, providing access to over 2,000 hours of film and always growing, from raw field footage to crafted ethnographies and documentaries.
EUscreen This link opens in a new window
The Euscreen portal offers free access to thousands of archival audiovisual items. The collection provides insight into the social, cultural, political, and economic events that have shaped the 20th and 21st centuries.
LGBTQ Archives of sexuality & gender This link opens in a new window
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history.
Please note: Archives of Sexuality is available in six parts. The University of Cambridge currently has access to the following 4 parts:
- LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I
- LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II
- Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
- International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture
Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
Founded in 1937 by anthropologist Tom Harrisson, film-maker Humphrey Jennings and poet Charles Madge, the aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting a team of observers and volunteers to write about their lives and opinions.
This resource offers revolutionary access to the original Mass Observation project, the bulk of which was carried out from 1937 until the mid-1950s, offering an unparalleled insight into everyday life in Britain during these transformative years. Explore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs and interactive features.
See also, Mass Observation Project 1981-2009 which launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders' aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK.
This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation between 1980 and 2010 and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers : https://ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/login?url=https://www.massobservationproject.amdigital.co.uk

Databases

China and the Modern World, Hong Kong, Britain, and China Part I: 1841-1951 & Part II: 1965-1993 This link opens in a new window
East India Company This link opens in a new window India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.
Economy and War in the Third Reich;1933-1944 This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound - This official statistical source provides rare, detailed data on the German economic situation during the Third Reich up to and throughout World War II. Consisting of Monatliche Nachweise-ber den Auswartigen Handel Deutschlands (January 1933-June 1939); Der Aussenhandel Deutschlands Monatliche Nachweise (July 1939); and Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands (August 1939-1944).
Enslaved : Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade This link opens in a new window An interconnected system of online tools for discovery and identification of individuals and places connected with the slave trade and presenting stories demonstrating the variety and scope of the lives of the enslaved through interactive, narrative biographies, written for student and general audiences.
Grassroots Civil Rights and Social Action: Council for Social Action This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound - The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches voted to create the Council for Social Action in 1934. The Council worked to focus on continuing Christian concern for service, international relations, citizenship, rural life, and legislative, industrial and cultural relations. The records in this collection trace the Council's active participation in social action, its engagement in race relations, Indian relations, opposition to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, and the protection of the civil rights of war victims and Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. The collection is sourced from the Congregational Library in Boston, Massachusetts. At the General Council Meeting of 1934, held at Oberlin, the Council for Social Action (CSA) was established. The CSA functioned through several subcommittees, including agricultural, industrial, legislative, intnernational, and race relations. The Council endured into the 1950s, with final transfer of functions to the Council for Christian Social Action of the Untied Church of Christ in 1961. Records contained in this collection are through 1956.
International Maritime Boundaries Online This link opens in a new window Comprehensive reference for international state practice concerning maritime boundary delimitation
LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window Archival runs of many of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests, including the Advocate and Gay Times.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window OECD iLibrary provides online access to the many publications put out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Publications include country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases. Topics covered include agriculture, developing economies, education, employment, energy, environment, health, migration, social issues, sustainable development and more. It replaces SourceOECD.
Politics;Social Activism and Community Support: Selected Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and Newsletters This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound - This collection of periodicals focuses on newsletters issued by gay and lesbian political and social activist organizations throughout the country and on periodicals devoted to gay and lesbian political and social activist agendas—he "public" face of gay and lesbian activism. In addition, this collection includes serial literature on its "private" face, exploring the challenges and complexities of building gay and lesbian communities inside and outside of a "straight" world, the need for psychological reinforcement through support groups in an effort combat an often hostile environment, and the yearning for spiritual confirmation of one's identity and life choices. Carefully selected for rarity from the thousands of titles in the GLBT Historical Society archives, the collection features more than 200 newsletter and periodical titles totaling nearly 8,000 issues. This product is strong in newsletters from organizations that began their work during the formative years of the gay and lesbian movement. Most of these organizations are now defunct and their newsletters are the only record of their history and contribution to the movement.
Quest for Labor Equality in Household Work: National Domestic Workers Union;1965-1979 This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound - The collection consists of records of the United Domestic Workers Union (U.S) from 1965-1979. The correspondence (1965-1979) reflects efforts in organizing the Union and includes such correspondents as Julian Bond, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Herman Talmadge, Allen Williams, Andrew Young, and other Georgia and national political figures. The subject files (1967-1979) cover a myriad of topics illustrating the Union's involvement in the Black community, the Manpower Program, the Career Learning Center, the Homemaking Skills Training Program, Maids Honor Day, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), and various federal agencies. The collection contains minutes of the Union, the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Transportation, the Citizens Neighborhood Advisory Council, and MARTA. The collection also contains selected files relating to Equal Opportunity Atlanta, which funded many of the Union's projects.
Women’s Magazine Archive : collections 1 and 2 This link opens in a new window An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines.

Newspapers

Africa confidential This link opens in a new window
One of the longest-established specialist publications on Africa, with a considerable reputation for being first with in-depth news and analysis on significant political, economic and security developments across the continent.
Diario de Pernambuco This link opens in a new window
The Diario de Pernambuco is acknowledged as the oldest newspaper in circulation in Latin America (see : Larousse cultural ; p. 263). The issues from 1825-1923 offer insights into early Brazilian commerce, social affairs, politics, family life, slavery, and such. Published in the port of Recife, the Diario contains numerous announcements of maritime movements, crop production, legal affairs, and cultural matters. The 19th century includes reporting on the rise of Brazilian nationalism as the Empire gave way to the earliest expressions of the Brazilian republic. The 1910s and 1920s are years of economic and artistic change, with surging exports of sugar and coffee pushing revenues and allowing for rapid expansions of infrastructure, popular expression, and national politics.
Economist This link opens in a new window
Access via ABI/Inform - Access the Economist through ProQuest for issues from 1981 to present.
Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Economist Historical Archive delivers a complete searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2011. Full-colour images, multiple search indexes, and the facility to browse each and every issue - all combine to offer a unique primary source covering the 19th and 20th centuries.
Financial Times This link opens in a new window
All current University of Cambridge staff and students have access, both within the University and from anywhere in the world, to the Financial Times online direct via the FT‘s website, FT.com.
The Financial Times is the world’s premier newspaper for business and economics. FT.com access significantly enhances the Cambridge reader’s existing access via Factiva and ABI/Inform, providing up-to-the-minute news coverage, all statistical sources and their full visualization online, personalization of content, and companies and markets data.
First time users need to register with their @cam.ac.uk email address and create an account on the FT.com site. After creating your account you can access your FT.com content via the Single Sign-On button which will recognise you as a member of the University.
Financial Times FT Historical Archive, 1888-2016 This link opens in a new window
The Financial Times began as a City of London news sheet and grew to become one of the best-known and most-respected newspapers in the world. Along the way, the Financial Times—printed on its distinctive salmon-colored paper—has chronicled the critical financial and economic events that shaped the world, from the late nineteenth and entire twentieth centuries to today. This historical archive is a comprehensive research tool for those studying economic and business history and current affairs of the last 120 years.
Initially focused on the global financial and economic issues that were to become the predominant forces of the twentieth century, the Financial Times expanded coverage in the post-war years, reporting on topics such as industry, energy, and international politics. In more recent decades, coverage of management, personal finance, and the arts has been added.
An online, fully searchable facsimile, Gale's Financial Times Historical Archive delivers a near-complete run of the London edition of this internationally known daily paper, from its first issue through 2010 (part 1), 2016 (part 2), and 2021 (part 3). Every article, advertisement, and market listing is included—shown both individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports This link opens in a new window
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service is a United States government agency which translates the text of daily radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and periodicals, government statements, books, and other sources of unrestricted information such as databases and gray literature from non-English sources around the world. Reports with translations are issued for eight world regions daily and cover such topics as military affairs, politics, the environment, societal issues, economics, and science and technology. Readex will offer online access to daily reports for 1941-1996.

Useful Links

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Data This link opens in a new window Information on exports and imports, economic structure, forecasts, and indicators, national debt, as well as business and economic statistics for over 20 countries and areas between 2009 an present.

Faculty of History - Economic and Social History

Manioc This link opens in a new window Digital library specializing in the Caribbean, the Amazon, the Guyana Plateau and the regions or centres of interest linked to these territories. Includes textual, audio, iconographic documents and references concerning the cultural, social, economic or political history of these countries.

The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (Campop) Since its founding in 1964, members of The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure have made a spectacular series of discipline-transforming contributions to social science history. These include: reconstructing the population history of England over the last 500 years; delineating occupational change in the English economy over the same period; and reconfiguring our understanding of historical household structures, welfare systems, transport, and energy use.
The Centre for Financial History The Centre for Financial History is based at Darwin College, Cambridge. Our core mission is to educate policy makers, researchers and the wider public in financial history Our Financial History Seminar Series meets in the Lent term and is open to the public.
The Centre for History and Economics The Joint Centre for History and Economics (JCHE) is based at Magdalene College and King's College, University of Cambridge, and at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. It was established in 1991 to promote research and education in fields of importance for historians and economists, including the history of economic and social thought, economic history and the application of economic concepts to historical problems. The objective of the Centre is to encourage fundamental research in history, economics, and related disciplines. It also encourages the participation of historians and economists in addressing issues of public importance. The Centre is supported by a generous gift from the David K. and Carol Richards Fund. In cooperation with its counterpart Centre at Harvard, the Cambridge Centre undertakes research projects and organizes workshops, seminars and exchanges of faculty and graduate students. It provides the base for the History Project, and for current research projects on Exchanges of Economic, Legal and Political Ideas; Energy History and Gender Bias in India.
History and Policy H&P promotes better public policy through a greater understanding of history. H&P is a national network of 500+ academic historians and an independent forum for the expression of historical perspectives on today’s policy issues.
The Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the lead partner of the spectacular collections of the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) and Botanic Garden. From antiquity to the present day, the Fitzwilliam houses a world-renowned collection of over half a million beautiful works of art, masterpiece paintings and historical artefacts.
The Labour History Cluster The Labour History Cluster was inaugurated in 2019 to generate collaboration and debate on themes of labour, broadly defined. There are many ways to enter this, through histories of capitalism, war, servitude, indenture, slavery, care giving, disabilities, environmental change, emotions, gender. Our core members are within the History Faculty, but the work of the group aims to engage researchers in other Centres, Faculties and Departments in Cambridge, and those beyond our local context. We are keen to build conversations across early career and senior members of our academy, and would like to foreground the work of those relatively early in their scholarly careers. To contact the cluster convenors, please email labour@hist.cam.ac.uk
Official Publications LibGuide Cambridge University Libraries have a vast amount of official publications in both print and online. This LibGuide is designed to be an introduction to the material that is held in print and the electronic resources that are available.

Official Publications

Economic Cooperation Administration's Relief Mission in Post-War China;1946-1948 This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound - This collection demonstrates how officials of the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) looked for economic and cultural opportunities to promote U.S.-China relations, despite the prevailing Cold War suspicions of any and all communists in the early Cold War era. Topics include ECA efforts to urge the U.S. State Department to pursue a friendly economic policy toward Communist China and not to jeopardize U.S.-China economic relations; ECA representation of the opinion of many American businessmen in the face of U.S. State Department and White House opposition; the failure of the Marshall Mission to China to politicize the U.S. economic policy toward China; the effectiveness of the ECA's implementation of aid to China; and information on the China Aid Act as part of Title IV of the Foreign Assistance Act. Documents include records of Donald S. Gilpatric, foreign service officer; regional offices correspondences; chronological files and cables; interoffice memos; subject files of the office of the director; among other records.
Global Financial and Economic Crisis This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound - This collection delivers the full story leading to the current global economic and financial crisis -- highlighting corporate finance, joint ventures and M&A, country profiles, capital markets, investor relations, currencies, banking, risk management, direct investment, money management and all the rest -- specifically tailored for faculty and students around the world. Included are over 320 papers and reports published by the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Banks, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. General Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision, International Organization of Securities Commissions, and other bodies.
Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group Records;1979-1981 This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound - On May 2, 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira met in Washington, D.C. and agreed to establish the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group—informally known as the "Wise Men." This small group of distinguished persons drawn from private life would submit recommendations to Carter and Ohira for maintaining a healthy bilateral economic relationship between the United States and Japan. Among the issues considered were the role of economic issues in the overall "political-security-cultural relationship," especially Japan's emerging position as a world power; Japan's future comprehensive economic security needs; and its involvement in foreign assistance programs. The Group actively solicited the views of the American public (Congress, business, labor, agriculture, public interest groups) to provide an additional forum for those who wished to be heard. The Group also drew upon research that was currently under way in the two countries and sponsored a modest program of separate independent research.
Johnson Presidency Administrative Histories: Economy;Finance and Trade This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound - This collection provides extensive documentation on a variety of presidential programs and initiatives. Agency and departmental records include: Bureau of the Budget; Council of Economic Advisers; Department of Commerce; Department of Treasury; Federal Deposit Corporation; Federal Home Loan Bank Board; Federal Reserve System; Federal Trade Commission; Interstate Commerce Commission; and Securities Exchange Commission. The archive is based on the film title Administrative Histories of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency, The Economy, Finance and Trade.
Society Digimap This link opens in a new window
2011 UK census data. Provides a wealth of census and socio-economic data for Great Britain.
War on Poverty and the Office of Economic Opportunity: Administration of Antipoverty Programs and Civil Rights;1964â€“1967 This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound - The War on Poverty and the Office of Economic Opportunity: Administration of Antipoverty Programs and Civil Rights, 1964-1967
This collection brings together a series of Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) collections that highlight efforts to meld the issue of civil rights and antipoverty initiatives. 1) Alphabetical File of Samuel Yette, 1964-1966: Yette was the Special Assistant to the Director of Civil Rights. Among his records are correspondence, reports, antipoverty program analyses, minutes of meetings, transcripts of testimonies, and other material. 2) Program Files, 1964-1967: These records consist of correspondence, weekly reports on civil rights matters, reports by civil rights coordinators, equal employment opportunity guidelines, and more. 3) Records Relating to the Administration of the Civil Rights Program in the Regions, 1965-1966: These records arranged by region > state > local areas and cities consist of correspondence between regional coordinators, various civil rights groups, labor organizations, members of Congress, and community groups regarding the activities of the OEO.
Original Microform Title: The War on Poverty and the Office of Economic Opportunity; Part 3: Administration of Antipoverty Programs and Civil Rights, 1964-1967

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