British economy 1873-1914

Question 1

growth

Answer 1

• GDP of GB increased by 50% between 1970-1890
• British growth present but half the growth of 1811 - 1877;1877-1913 :1.6 pa
  growth of Germany and USA twice of GB for 1873- 1914

Question 2

exports

Answer 2

• 1870- 1914 :British manufactured good declined from 75% of global exports to 50%
• by 1914 25% of all imports into GB were manufactured goods
• But 30% of all global exported manufactured goods were made in GB
• GB in top economics of the world in 1914

Question 3

steam & technology

Answer 3

• steam remained important but GB was slow with electricity supply relative to Germany which used it in electrical engineering

Question 4

staples (industrial capitalism)

Answer 4

• by 1914 British steel output stood at 7m tons whilst Germany and USA produced 15m and 27 tons
  -GB imported basic steel from Germanyforn 1913 as British steel output was of a heavier form needed for ship building

Question 5

steel ships

Answer 5

80% of the world’s steel ships were built by GB in 1892
- 60% in 1911
- down by still more than half of the world steam ships

Question 6

coal

Answer 6

• British coal exports more than doubled
• coal industry employed nearly a million men and in 1914 was at its height of production
• but seams increasingly exhausted, poor industrial relations and only 8% mechanically cut
• oal industry expanded output
• 1870 : 110 tons
• 1900 : 225 tons
• share of british exports up from 13.4 to 25.9%

Question 7

cotton

Answer 7

• amounted to 25% of british exports
• but 50% of exports went to India
• reliance on skilled labour and a single market inhibited the introduction of new automatic looms in GB
• greater mechanisation used in the USA

Question 8

Railways

Answer 8

• saturated with railways by the 1850s
• british firms and investment capital constructed railways in the USA and Argentina instead

Question 9

new industires

Answer 9

• british electricity chemical and car industry established
• but the USA and Germany produced 60% of worlds chemical to GBs 11%

Question 10

Cars

Answer 10

• car industry fragmented
• Wokships and not assembly based and expensive with a limited domestic market
• france and germany later sped ahead with cheaper cars
• 1914 Fords in the US produced 200,000 cars whilst Britain produced 3,000
• USA produced 4x as many cars as Europe

Question 11

domestic industry

Answer 11

• new service and retail industry
• but new British industries focused on domestic not international market

Question 12

Patents

Answer 12

• legal protection given to new methods and technologies
• dominated by Germany and the USA by 1914
• in new industries of chemicals cars and electrical engineering
• between 1883 and 1913 Germany overtook GB in registering Patents

Question 13

Education

Answer 13

• 1870 only 19 new graduates in science, maths and technology
• oxford and cambridge did not offer these subjects
• 1900 667 new scientific graduates but this fell short of competitors
• 1872 university of Munich had more chemistry students than the whole of England
• education spending in GB as a share of GDP was half of that of Germany and the USA
• GB relied on skilled work learned on the job

Question 14

Great depression

Answer 14

• stock market crisis in new york and austria
• late Victorian initially blamed economic downturn on the crisis
• prices declined by 40% for that period
• incipient decline and effects of globalisation and the second industrial revolution were the real causes

Question 15

unemployment

Answer 15

-1883 : unemployment was 2.5%
- 1886 : 9.8%
- 1892 : 10% then fell
- 1908 : 7.7% then fell to 3%
- phrase unemployment first used in this period

Question 16

Free trade

Answer 16

• GB commitment to free trade not consistently mirrored by competitors
• Germany and USA used tariffs to protect their emerging industries
• Conservatives demanded retaliatory tariffs in response to tariffs imposed by competitors (france 1882, Germany 1879, USA 1883 & 1890) to encourage a return to international free trade
• 1906 chamberlain unsuccessfully tried to introduce tariff reforms

Question 17

city of london (financial capitalism )

Answer 17

• Foreign investment increased by £ 1.2b (1870) to 4b (1914)
• 40% went to empire
• net payments from abroad to GB rose from 1.5% of GDP (1840s) to 6% in 1880s and 8% by 1914
• foreign investment did not automatically benefit form the foreign competitors of British industry but it did incentivise foreign economics to export to Britain to obtain pounds to pay what they owned the City of london

Question 18

invisible erarnings

Answer 18

• record growth in invisible earnings is the state of a trade deficit in visible earrings
• British economy began to take the appearance of a dual economic personality - financial and industrial capitalism with separate interest

Question 19

agriculture

Answer 19

• by 1914 half of all fruit, bread, butter and cheese was imported
• 40% of meat and 30% of eggs were imported
• arable farmers experienced bankruptcy : by 1900 to 1914 only 25% of wheat consumed in GB came from domestic farmers
• agriculture share of national income fell from 20% in 1815 to 10% ny 1881
• agriculture output fell by 20% between 1851 and 1895
• between 1875 and 1914 the average farmer produced a profit that only covered a quarter of his rent