Tariffs and New Markets. By 1815 industrialization in Great Britain had made it a world economic power and given it political predominance in Europe. Yet, its vast financial, commercial, and industrial resources were far out of proportion to its population, supply of raw materials, or scientific prowess. With the end of the distractions of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in 1815, industrialization accelerated in Great Britain. Innovative products were developed, and new markets were exploited to their fullest potential. Limited by high tariff walls erected by many of its traditional trade partners on the Continent, nineteenthcentury British economic expansion focused on the British Empire and on markets such as Latin America, China, and Africa. Despite a slowdown in the rate of productivity after 1870, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the British remained the wealthiest society on the planet, with economic power...