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. BRITISH NATIONAL ECONOMY
The structure of Industry and Trade
Industry in Action:
chemicals
pharmaceuticals
mechanical engineering
electronics
offshore industry
food and drink
aerospace
financial services
tourism
Agriculture
The Structure of Trade and Industrybecame the world's first industrialised country in the mid 19 th century. Wealth was based on manufacturing iron and steel, heavy machinery and cotton textiles, and on coal mining, shipbuilding and trade. Manufacturing still plays an important role and Britain excels in high-technology industries like chemicals, electronics, aerospace and offshore equipment, where British companies are among the world's largest and most successful. The British construction industry has made its mark around the world and continues to be involved in prestigious building projects. most important industrial developments in the past 20 years or so in Britain have been the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas, and the rapid development of microelectronic technologies and their widespread application in industry and commerce. At the same time service industries have been assuming ever-increasing importance and now account for around two-thirds of output and employment. There has been a steady rise in the share of output and employment - now around 80 and 75 per cent respectively - accounted for by private-sector enterprises as privatisation of the economy has progressed. , The world's fifth largest trading nation, belongs to the European Union (EU), the biggest established trade grouping in the world. Structure of trade and industry'modernization 'of business and industry happened later in Britain than it did in most other European countries. It was not until the 1960s that large corporations started to dominate and that a 'management class', trained at business school, began to emerge. Even after that time. many companies still preferred to recruit their managers from people who had 'worked their way up' through the company ranks and/or who were personally known to the directors. Only in the 1980s did graduate business qualifications become the norm for newly-hired managers. industry performed poorly during the decades following the Second World War (some people blamed this on the above characteristics). In contrast, British agriculture was very successful. In this industry, large scale organization (ie big farms) had been more common in Britain than in other European countries for quite a long time.in all European countries, the economic system in Britain is a mixture of private and public enterprise. Exactly how much of the country's economy is controlled by the state has fluctuated a great deal in the last fifty years and has been the subject of continual political debate. From 1945 until 1980 the general trend was for the state to have more and more control. Various industries became nationalized (in other words, owned by the government), especially those concerned with the production and distribution of energy. So too did the various forms of transport and communication services (as well, of course, as the provision of education, social welfare and health care). By 1980, 'pure' capitalism probably formed a smaller part of the economy than in any other country in western Europe. 1980 the trend started going in the other direction. A major part of the philosophy of the Conservative government of the 1980s was to let 'market forces' rule (which meant restricting the freedom of business as little as possible) and to turn state-owned companies into companies owned by individuals (who became shareholders ). This approach was a major part of the thinking of Thatcherism (Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister at that time). Between 1980 and 1994 a large number of companies were privatized (or 'denationalized'). That is, they were sold off by the government. By 1988 there were more shareholders in the country than there were members of unions. In addition, local government authorities wer...
