Britain has had connection of its political institutions since 1688, in relationship with some current member states that have had as many as eleven different political systems in the same period. British people generally feel separated from Europe in more ways than simply geographically. Britain felt that they were literally separate from the rest of Europe. British people see further integration as a threat to the national identity and culture. Democratically, further European integration meant a loss of power and a loss of sovereignty.
             The long eighteenth century, from the Glorious Revolution until Waterloo, was the period in which Britain rose to a dominant position among European trading empires and became the first western nation to industrialize.
             In 1688 England and Wales the internal economy was still mostly based on agricultural work and production. Domestic industry flourished, with many workers pursuing double occupations on a seasonal basis in industry and agriculture. English society contained a successful and more extensive middling sector than any other western country, including the Dutch Republic. This provided a strong stand for trade with and settlement in far territories. Merchants sent out ships to trade with North America and the West Indies where England had established a network of colonies since the permanent settlement of Virginia in 1607 and the acquisition of Barbados in 1625. Exports to the
             colonies consisted mainly of woolen textiles, imports included sugar, tobacco and other tropical groceries that were growing in consumer demand. The triangular slave trade had begun to supply these Atlantic colonies with non free African labor for work on tobacco, rice and sugar plantations. It was based around the activities of the Royal African Company.
             Trade and settlement also occurred in Asian waters. This was mainly based around the activities of the East India Company, a
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