Before 1800 Dr. Johnson observed that ‘the age is running mad with innovation’ and ‘every Master Manufacturer hath a new Invention of his own and is daily improving on those of others’. By the middle of the 19th century this first industrial revolution had made Britain the world leader in the application of steam power, in railways and in the output of coal, iron, steel, cotton cloth, and other manufactured goods. Yet by 1886 the Commission of Enquiry into the Economic Depression stated ‘We are no longer alone. More active rivals with better equipment are springing up and leaving us behind’. Between the turn of the century and the First World War, some of those rivals—in particular the USA and Germany—had eliminated our earlier lead and had gone ahead in key industrial sectors.