Arnold Toynbee (/ˈtɔɪnbi/; 23 August 1852 – 9 March 1883) was an English economic historian also noted for his social commitment and desire to improve the living conditions of the working classes.

Of weak physique, but full of a passionate spiritual enthusiasm, he gave two lectures at St. Andrew's Hall, Oxford Street, against the book and the effort ended his career.

Another idea Toynbee dismissed was that free competition was universally beneficial to economic and societal progress, especially as reflected in its apotheosis in Social Darwinism, which promoted laissez-faire capitalism.

"[7] Although economic competition does have its advantages, being the driving force behind technical progress, these were "gained at the expense of an enormous waste of human life and labour, which might be avoided by regulation".

The stronger side will dictate its own terms; and as a matter of fact, in the early days of competition, the capitalists used all their power to oppress the labourers, and drove down wages to starvation point.

[8]In itself, a market based on competition was neither good nor bad, but like "a stream whose strength and direction have to be observed, that embankments may be thrown up within which it may do its work harmlessly and beneficially".

For Toynbee, early industrial capitalism and the situation of the working class in it was not just a subject of ivory-tower studies; he was actively involved in improving the living conditions of the labourer.

The concept was to bring upper and middle class students into lower-class neighbourhoods, not only to provide education and social aid, but to actually live and work together with their inhabitants.

Although French and German commentators had used this term in the early nineteenth century, English use had been rare and inconsistent until the posthumous publication of Toynbee's Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England.

Among its components were an "agrarian revolution" that produced "the alienation between farmer and labourer" and in the manufacturing world, the appearance of a "new class of great capitalist employers".

In response to this bleak scenario, Toynbee proposed a test for when the state should become involved in the regulation of an economic or social sphere of society to even the balance between industry and labour.