John Ramsay McCulloch (1789–1864) wrote numerous articles, pamphlets and books about the emerging field of political economy. This two-volume work, published in 1837, focuses on 'the British Empire, exclusive of its foreign dependencies', in other words, Great Britain and Ireland. McCulloch drew information from the 1821 and 1831 census returns and commissioned contributions from experts including William Jackson Hooker, who provided the article on botany. His book was the first such overview to be compiled in more than a century and is an indispensable contemporary source on life in Great Britain and Ireland at the close of the Georgian era. It provides a wealth of data on topics including population, land use, agriculture and livestock, diet and standard of living, the economic benefits deriving from overseas colonies, industry and trade, health and life expectancy, religious and educational institutions, defence spending, taxation, crime and punishment, and the poor laws.
