thern Ireland may issue currencies in limited amounts. Some banking services are provided by the postal system, savings banks, and cooperative and building societies. Many foreign banks maintain offices in London. Foreign Trade The prominent position of British commerce in world trade during the 18th and 19th centuries resulted largely from the geographical isolation of the British Isles from the wars and political troubles that afflicted the centers of trade on the European continent. The development of the great trading companies (see East India Company; Hudson's Bay Company), colonial expansion, and naval control of the high seas were corollary factors. Before the 17th century the foreign trade of England was almost completely in the hands of foreigners; wool was the principal export, and manufactured goods were the chief imports. Under the mercantile system (see Mercantilism), which in Great Britain was the prevailing economic theory of the 17th and 18th centuries, the government fostered British foreign trade, the development of shipping, and trading companies. As British overseas possessions increased, the raising of sheep for wool and mutton became a major occupation in the colonies; the practice of exporting wool from England and importing manufactured woolen articles was gradually replaced by the import of wool and the manufacture and export of yarns and fabrics. Cotton textiles, iron and steel, and coal soon became significant British exports. In the early 1990s Britain remained one of the world's leading trading nations. Its major exports were road vehicles and other transportation equipment, industrial machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, electrical machinery, office machines and data processing equipment, power-generating machinery, organic chemicals, precision instruments, and iron and steel. Leading imports were road vehicles and parts, food products, office machines and data processing equipment, electrical machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, clothing and accessories, industrial machinery, textile yarn and fabrics, paper and paper products, and power-generating equipment. Exports, primarily from France, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Ireland, were valued at $ 190.1 billion annually in the early 1990s. In the same period, annual imports, chiefly from Germany, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Japan, and Italy, totaled $ 221.6 billion. Trade with other Commonwealth members and with the sterling area (a group of countries whose currencies are tied to the British pound sterling) declined after Great Britain joined the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1973, and trade with Western Europe has become more important. Most domestic retail trade is conducted through independently owned shops, although the number of department, chain, and cooperative stores and supermarkets is increasing. More than half of all wholesale trade is carried out in...
