lfast. Mining The strong industrial position long held by Great Britain was based chiefly on the abundant resources of coal and iron ore available for industrial development. These and other mineral resources have been a determinant in the location and development of centers of population and in the country's general prosperity. In the pre-Christian era, Phoenician traders visited what is now England to barter for tin from the mines of Cornwall. British clays were later used for pottery. The coal industry was nationalized (see History, below) on January 1, 1947. Coal production, which had been declining since the 1950s, was given a boost in the 1970s by the increase in the price of petroleum and by the discovery of extensive new reserves. In the early 1980s exploitation was begun of a vast coalfield near Selby, in northern England; this activity helped spur a major increase in national coal output. Petroleum was first discovered under the bed of the North Sea in the 1960s, and production began in 1975. By 1980, 15 fields were producing 1.6 million barrels of high-quality oil a day-virtually all of Britain's requirements-and oil was becoming an important source of export revenue as well. Production of natural gas from the North Sea fields began in 1967 and has increased steadily; new fields have been located in the Irish Sea and on land in Dorset. Annual production of minerals in the early 1990s included about 84.9 million metric tons of coal, 667 million barrels of crude petroleum, and 53.9 billion cu m (1.9 trillion cu ft) of natural gas. Energy Annual electrical output in the early 1990s exceeded 317 billion kilowatt-hours, of which about 75 percent was generated in conventional thermal facilities using fossil fuels. Britain was a pioneer in the development of nuclear plants for the production of electricity. The world's first commercial-scale nuclear power station at Calder Hall in Cumberland became functional in 1956. By the early 1990s nuclear power supplied about 16 percent of Great Britain's electricity production. Currency and Banking The pound sterling, consisting of 100 pence, is the basic unit of currency (0.66 equals US $ 1; 1996). In 1968 Great Britain took the first step in a three-year conversion of its currency to the decimal system of coinage by introducing the first two new coins, the 5-new-pence piece (equal to 1 old shilling) and the 10-new -pence piece. The conversion was completed in 1971. The pound was permitted to float against the dollar and other world currencies beginning in June 1972. The Bank of England, chartered in 1694, was nationalized in 1946 and is the bank of issue in England and Wales. Great Britain has 17 major commercial banks with more than 17,000 domestic and overseas branches, most of which are offices of the four leading banks: Lloyds, Barclays, National Westminster, and Midland. Several banks in Scotland and Nor...
