Empire:
It was not just at home that Britain grew. The British Empire expanded from a few colonies in 1750 to cover a fifth of the world’s land by 1900. Colonies in places such as India, Australia, Canada and South Africa gave British factories access to exotic resources such as cotton, silk, fur and tea. By 1900, the Empire had a population of around 400 million people; each of these a potential customer for British goods, which pushed production ever onwards.