lies in the lack of satisfactory manuals. Some small books giving in outline a survey of the course of development are excellent. The Select Documents of Bland, Brown, and Tawney are admirable material of the kind. The need of a substantial manual, however, has not yet been filled, and the author's contribution will be welcomed with interest and hope by many teachers. It "has been planned and written with a view to the needs of college classes beginning work in economic history." In summary the ground has been covered as follows. The first two hundred pages, roughly, are given to a general introduction on the forms of industrial organization, to chapters on the crafts of antiquity and of medieval France, on the population of England 1086-1700, on the manor, on towns, and on gilds. Two chapters cover the woolen industries and agrarian history in the transition period. The last three hundred pages, roughly, are given to the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including chapters on the cotton and iron industries, on the factory system, collective bargaining, social policy, and other topics to be noticed later.

The author brings to his work some qualities to be highly prized. He has a wide range of information, a good measure of critical scholarship, an initiative which has led him on occasion from the beaten track and has resulted in the contribution of some interesting material. His exposition is generally clear. The balance of general statement and of particular fact is in most chapters good. The author is usually a trustworthy guide. I note briefly points on which his statements appear to me to be mistaken or misleading, but I do not attach great importance to the list. Capitalistic control had appeared in Paris, 1300, only "to a slight and uncertain extent," page 72 (cf. Martin St. Leon's analysis of the tax roll of 1292); Roman "field arrangements left traces in both Gaul and Britain," page 121 (cf. Haverfield on Meitzen in English Historical Review, 1908, 23: 543, and Tait on Seebohm in the same journal, 1915, 30: 100 ff.); the merchants of the Staple were "mostly native Englishmen," page 147, (cf. Jenckes, 12, 33); restriction of the causes of the industrial revolution to "the mechanical achievement; the commercial changes; or physiographic factors," page 252; the iron industry led the field in the United States, 1909, in number of persons employed, page 258; chapter xi passim on the course of commercial policy and its results, and on the doctrine of the period; the inquiry of 1833-34 showed "that a number of parishes had been abandoned to the poor," page 365 (cf. Report, 1834, p. 64; Cholesbury was the sole instance).

The most serious weakness of the work, when it is appraised as a manual for college undergraduates, lies in its plan rather than in its execution. The author appears to me to sin both in commission and in omission. Chapters 2 and 3, on The Rise of the Crafts in Antiquity, and on Crafts and Craft Gilds in Medieval France, are excursions that are relatively unprofitable; chapters 17 and 18 on the railways are written from a technical standpoint, make but slight contributions to industrial history, and omit altogether consideration of roads and canals; a large part of chapter 19 on monopolies is not history but contemporary economics.

On the other hand the author treats slightly or omits altogether subjects which are vitally connected with industrial history. "That commerce is the conditioning factor in industrial development," we read on page 39, "is designed to be the thesis of the present work." Yet, after the medieval period, there is only one chapter, that on the East India Company, in which any considerable attention is given to the relation of commerce to industry; and in this chapter protection from commerce (i.e., from the import of Indian textiles) is presented as the determining factor in the development of the English cotton industry. The extension of the market for manufactured wares is assumed, not described; changes in the character of the import trade are dismissed in a similar summary fashion. I noticed only a bare allusion to the reforms of the customs tariff in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and no reference at all to the industrial effect of the Corn Laws and their repeal.

Another aspect of industrial history, namely its finance, has been neglected in almost equal degree. The author refers in his bibliography to one of Sombart's works, but he has missed the points of Sombart, Schmoller, Weber, and other German scholars who have discussed the development of capitalism, and treats that subject in a formal and narrow way. No attention is paid to the investment processes vital to modern industry, illustrated in banking, the stock company, the stock exchange, etc.; no reference is made, so far as I observed, to the establishment of the system of patents.

It seems ungracious to criticize an author for what he has not attempted. It is improper to do so when his contribution is an investigation addressed to scholars. A manual designed for students must be judged by stricter standards. Credit must be given the author for what he has contributed on many important subjects, and for the notably full treatment of the technical history

of manufactures. He has taken pains to illustrate his subject by maps, figures, and graphs, and has provided a serviceable bibliographical apparatus. I think, however, that few teachers who examine the book will dissent from the conclusion that it would be greatly improved if a large part, almost one third of the whole, were cut out, and if the space saved were used for the consideration of the topics now omitted. Whether, in its present form, it will serve better than other manuals must be determined by each teacher with reference to his particular needs. The question rises in my own case, and I am still in doubt.

Yale University.

CLIVE DAY.

Empire and Commerce in Africa. A Study in Economic Imperialism. By LEONARD WOOLF. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1920. Pp. 374.)

This book is a study of economic imperialism by one to whom its aims and methods are alike morally repugnant. It is the author's conviction that the foreign policy of the modern state is shaped by the economic desires of its citizens and that the power of the nation has been placed at the command of the strongest of its commercial classes to be used in the furtherance of their aims and purposes (p. 14). Viewed in the light of the economic development of the nineteenth century which brought forth an ever-growing industrialization of European nations and an ever-increasing dependence of the average citizen upon the smooth working of the industrial machine, it seemed clear to statesmen that the supreme interest of the citizens lay in the acquisition of markets, both for raw materials and for finished products. Practically all of the foreign programs of European nations-the colonial policy, the spheres of influence, the acquisition of exploitable territory from peoples of lower culture-is attributed by the author to this belief of the statesmen. This ideal of imperialism has left its mark upon the weaker nations in all quarters of the globe. "It has converted the whole of Africa and Asia into mere appendages of the European state, and the history of those two continents, the lives men live in Nigeria or Abyssinia, in India and Siam and China, are largely determined by the conviction of Europeans that 'Commerce is the greatest of European political interests'" (p. 10). It is the purpose of the author to prove this contention so far as it concerns Africa and to set forth the results, good and bad, of economic imperialism in that continent.

Omitting consideration of Egypt, Mr. Woolf records in detail the history of those portions of Africa which fell under the influence of European imperialism. Separate chapters are devoted to Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Abyssinia, Zanzibar, and the Belgian Congo. In all cases the sequence of events as disclosed by the narrative is much the same. The awakening of covetous desire in the hearts of European statesmen; the entering wedge of commercial or financial enterprize, ostensibly promoted by private initiative but in reality fostered by the state; the eventual declaration by the home government of its intention to guarantee the integrity of the economic advantages thus gained by its citizens; the marking out of spheres of influence; the friction aroused between the Powers by the crossing of imperialistic purposes, and the threat of war; the adjustment of these international differences by the devious methods of diplomacy, and the final emergence of the victor secure in the possession of the spoils. No patriotic bias is shown in the record. France, Italy, England, Germany, and Belgium are accused impartially of sordid motives and heartless conduct, though the testimony of results forces the admission that of all these nations England has shown the shrewdest foresight and the wisest selection of means for the attainment of her purposes. A high order of merit is shown by the writer in his skillful disentangling of the strands of intrigue in which the imperialistic aims of the rival states are involved, and in the accomplishment of his main intent: to set forth clearly the sequence of events which discloses the true purpose of Europe in its penetration into Africa. A generous equipment of maps illustrates the text, and a reproduction of the necessary documents lends support to the narrative of diplomatic intrigue.

The book closes with two chapters summing up the effects of economic imperialism upon Europe and Africa. It is shown that in every case the resources of the unexploited country were wildly exaggerated. Statistics are given to prove that even when measured in terms of material gain, the policy has paid no profit to the people of Europe; indeed, that the expenditure has far outweighed the receipts. Trade has not followed the flag; the nations of Europe are gaining immeasurably more from commerce among themselves and with other independent peoples than they gain from the exploitation of territory wrested from weaker races in Africa. When a different test is applied and economic imperialism is judged by what it has contributed to the happiness of the subject peoples

of Africa, the verdict is similarly adverse and is furthermore embittered by the moral condemnation of the author. When shown in this light, the foreign policy of the civilized nations assumes an aspect of heartlessness and brutality.

At no time is the historian on more precarious ground than when he attempts to depict the human motives which lie behind the events of history. The author's difficult task, that of tracing to a single motive the complex foreign policies of many states through an extended period of time, is especially open to the risk of bias. Mr. Woolf acknowledges this risk at different points in his book and frankly confesses the improbability of his succeeding in escaping it. His book leaves the reader with the impression that he has not wholly succeeded. To attribute the policies of the various chancellories solely, or even chiefly, to the pressure of profit-seeking capitalists leaves out of account the many non-economic forces which national pride and patriotism bring to play upon the relationships of states. This criticism applies, however, only to the author's attempted explanation of motive. His record of fact gives evidence of careful verification, and his summary of results is convincingly stated. Even those readers who cannot agree that a single motive actuates the modern state in its imperial policy will find this study of the progress of empire in Africa illuminating and suggestive.

Yale University.

E. S. FURNISS.

Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century. By ALICE CLARK. (London: George Routledge and Sons. 1919. Pp. 335.)

The research student grows fond of the period of his discoveries. He is charmed by its quaintness and he loves it for its picturesqueness as he compares it with the starkly familiar arrangements of his modern world. It becomes difficult to resist invidious comparisons in favor of the mosaic he has created from fragments of life found in old records.

Perhaps Miss Clark has succumbed to this subtle temptation and views the seventeenth century in the rosy light so easily invoked over the good old days of bygone times. For her the present shadow which sets off the golden glow of her period is "the blind force Capitalism." It is capitalism which has robbed women of their larger economic and social functions. In concluding, she