Retirement was not invented in the twentieth century; but it did then become the eventual lot of the majority of British employees and its terms were then fundamentally rewritten. This book is about the way that occupational pension schemes have shaped these profound changes. In recent years, economists and others have come to appreciate the important role of pension schemes in employment contracts, in the distribution of wealth, in social welfare policy, and in the capital markets; but historians have not explicitly addressed their studies to the origins and purpose of our pensioning system. Why do employers, rather than individuals, or, as was once the case, trade unions, now organize old age saving? Why do employees have less control of the resulting pension funds than they used to? Why do most people now retire, often compulsorily at a fixed age? Why has Britain paid such poor state pensions and depended so heavily on occupational pensions? Why are pension rights protected well against inflation for workers who remain with one employer but miserably for those who change jobs or for most occupational pensioners after retirement? These questions address issues which in one way or another have concerned employers and employees for a century or more. I hope that the historical perspective provided by this book will enable those who are attempting to answer them now to understand better the constraints and opportunities which the legacy of the past provides.