p.358 On the other hand, Continental countries were not in a favourable position to offset the narrowness of their home markets by developing a strong export trade. During the Napoleonic wars they had been cut off from overseas markets, and had lost practically all those they had enjoyed in the late 18th century. Britain had established an almost complete monopoly in these markets (especially in the U.S.A. and in Latin America) and she was very largely able to retain this after Waterloo, owing to the lower prices and better quality of her manufactured goods, to the acquired habits and tastes of overseas customers, and to the commercial infrastructure which Britain had set up in many countries. The Continentals found it very difficult to regain a foothold overseas after 1815; those industries which, in the 18th century, had been dependent upon sea-borne trade, and which had been badly hit during the Napoleonic wars, went on decaying or stagnating; and for some time Western Europe was not able to take advantage of the fast growth in the volume of world trade, which Kuznets has estimated at 50 per cent per decade between 1820 and 1850, and which was undoubtedly faster than the expansion of demand in internal markets.