By 1800 London was the world's greatest city and at the centre of the world's greatest empire. This book sets out to show that it was also at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Traditional historiography has regarded the city as a minor player in the Industrial Revolution - "a storm that passed over London and broke elsewhere" - but David Barnett argues that, in addition to providing financial and other essential service skills, the capital was at the forefront of industrial development. The study is based on hard data, such as insurance records and trade directories, and provides a mine of information for research as well as presenting a portrait of London during a period of rapid and unprecedented development as the world's first great modern industrial city.