During the 19th century, the world’s most powerful nations industrialised. Industrialisation was a historically unique process. Industrialisation involved the creation of  ‘infrastructure’, communication through roads, railways, and canals; the building of massive factories, producing a huge volume of goods, and most of society living close together in urban housing side by side. None of this had ever occurred before in all the world’s history. Britain was out in front in the 19th century as she led the way with industrialisation, however, the USA caught up, and Germany too by the end of the century from a slow start. All three societies came to Industrialisation through their unique histories, so there were many differences.

Monopoly or oligopoly exists when a very small number of huge enterprises dominate a marketplace. The chartered companies established in Europe in the late 16th century and continuing through to the end of the 19th were privatised monopoly companies, which allowed shareholding from outside wealthy individuals. The old feudal system had also created monopolies through land use, in feudal land tenure systems. Colonies created monopolies for the invading country. A colonial power had monopoly importing and exporting rights.

In one sense, each growing economy in Europe adapted its own banking to its particular needs. Britain, the leading 19th century nation in Europe, developed its private banking structure for the needs of colonial trade: long-term capital investment opportunities abroad. Germany, on the other hand, developed its banking structure with the purpose of 'catching up'.

Industrialisation during the 19th century historically changed the world for all the people living in France Holland the UK and the USA; by the end of the century city living and industrial work had become the new normal. Japan and Germany followed in the 2nd half of the century. At the beginning in 1800, the world’s populations had been predominantly rural: by 1900 one hundred years later the few wealthy independent European and American nations had become mainly urban. The processes of manufacture and transport had vitally altered everyone’s lives. Even the understanding of time itself had been altered.

The growth of 19th century manufacturing was built on the back of Enslaved People, the taxes of Indian peasants and the subsequent impoverishment of the Indian peoples. Enslaved peoples provided cotton, the raw material, from which industrial textile manufacturing became the leading product of the industrial revolution. The money derived from Indian taxpayers became the backbone of the City of London.

The transformation from an ancient society towards an industrial urban capitalist world has nearly always been a revolutionary process which has torn society apart. The almost complete breakdown of societies in the multi-layered wars between the 1780s and 1815, and then from 1914 to 1945, reflect these long-term processes at work. At the end of both periods, not only was the world a very different place with many millions of people dead, but many of the necessary conditions towards the industrial urban capitalist world had also been established.

The twin historical forces of colonialism and capitalism ‘destroyed’ much of the ancient social, economic, ideological and political systems of the world and transformed it. Today we call this ‘progress’. Progress did not happen all at once, of course. People, states, and governments resisted over long periods, but in the end, most peoples were overwhelmed…