During the first half of the eighteenth century, in the old age of Newton and the decline of the Royal Society, England basked in a last Indian summer of village industry and the overseas trade of merchant adventures.

• 18世纪上半期，也就是牛顿的晚年，皇家学会逐渐衰败的年代，英国仍享受着农村经济和商业冒险家从事的海外贸易带来的最后欢娱。