1. Structure of economy:
2% of workforce is engaged in agriculture:
- high level of productivity – intensive methods of production, mechanised agriculture,
- Britain produces: wheat, sugar beet, beef, lamb,
98% of workforce is engaged in services like banking, insurance companies, etc. (now mainly services, not much industry).
2. 1780 – 1830 Industrial Revolution:
- sudden economic growth (the first country which was mechanised; export for other countries flourished),
- industrial centres appeared: Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham,
- value of trade increased.
3. 19th century – England:
- England was called as workshop of the world because of the number of goods which was produced at that time,
- there were industries like: textile, metallurgy, mining (mainly coal), communication (boats, ships, cars with steam engine):
Stephenson’s first engine,
Stocton-Darlington railway line.
4. Changes:
- TECHNOLOGICAL – new discoveries, new machines appeared,
- ECONOMIC – owners of factories became very rich; the society was divided into classes; working class appeared,
- SOCIAL – working class appeared; big differences between poor and rich people; unemployment started to appear as some workers were replaced by machines.
5. 20th century: (1960/1970):
- Britain was overtaken economically by the USA and Germany (too many people were employed; Labour Party was in power so they preferred the socialist type of country; this situation led to economic problems),
- there were struggle to find balance between: free market (owners of factories decided about the money; they didn’t care about other people, quality of goods; they preferred cheaper products than good products) and government intervention (influenced economy; private/state ownership).
6. Margaret Thatcher’s policy: (1970/1980 – she completely changed economic policy as when she went to power – Britain’s condition was really bad):
- lower taxes (increase of production),
- limit to government spending (less money were spent on health service, benefits, etc.h),
- no help for inefficient industries,
- privatisation (gas, electricity, etc. started to be private ones),
- no aim at full employment,
- state less involved in economy,
- different type of economy appeared.
7. New type of economy:
- HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES,
- SMALL SCALE ENTRPRISE – family businesses,
- INCREASE IN SERVICE INDUSTRY – advertising, entertainment, insurance, etc.
8. Self-employment encouraged by:
- taxes,
- ‘enterprise allowance scheme’ (for the first year you didn’t pay taxes and received some money from government),
- services 2/3 of employment,
- biggest growth: banking, finance, insurance, law, advertising, catering, entertainment.
9. Private industry: it is majority now – and it is mainly owned by:
- public companies,
- local councils (housing, blocks of flats, etc.),
- investment trusts,
- private companies.
10. Working week:
- 37 – 40 hours per week for manual workers,
- 35 – 38 hours per week (sometimes) for non-manual workers,
- no statuary entitlement to holidays – people usually have 4 – 5 weeks of paid holidays (it depends how long you have been working for a firm) + bank holidays + public holidays (like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day, etc.).