L1 Flashcards
What was happening to the economy post-industrial revolution?
Population rise from 21mn 1851 to 37mn 1901
Fertility rising mortality falling till 1870, and both were declining after
NI growth appox 2% p.a., 1.2 pie capita
Urbanisation occurring
Standards of living were improving, but still a lot of poverty much inequality
In what years were we having the (i) mid-Victorian boom and then (ii) Late-Victorian decline?
(i) 1850s-70s ‘workshop of the world’
(ii) 1870-1896 late Vic decline, ‘Great Depression’, we start losing leading position
- energies increasingly directed to export of services not goods
- stagnating value of exports resulting in trade deficit, deteriorating TOT, protectionism elsewhere, growing competition from abroad -> contemporaries named it ‘the Great Depression’ (Note: even those varied, see A Marshall)
What are the views on decline?
- Climacteric view
- Long-swing, 50 yr Kondratieff cycle
- ‘Failure’ view
‘Brit is falling of a CLF’ Climacteric, Long-swing cycle, Failure
Tell me about the Climacteric view
How’d you draw the line post-1873?
Associations with crafts, not absolute decline but relative
Mistakes happened in late-Vic period, and because of that Brit’s screwed post 1945
Causes: poor productivity, bad management, lack of R+D, lack of education and training, essentially everything affecting LRAS affected LR growth and is traceable back to late Vic period
What about the Kondratieff cycle?
Not a terminal decline, unlike (1)
50-year cycles in the economy, faces upswings and downswings
1873 peak, on the side going down, long-swing 1873-96
Twas just a phase, post 1896-1913 had an upswing
Failure view?
We were first to industrialise, to maintain that position seems unfeasible
McCloskey redefines the question, asking whether Britain could’ve done any better given available resources? NOPE!
A. Marshall
“a depression of prices..profits…interest… [and no] considerable depression in any other respect”
