Introduction

Abstract

From being the world’s dominant nation at the turn of the twentieth century, Britain entered the new millennium as a moderately successful, medium-sized, post-imperial power, unable to decide whether its best interests lay with Europe or North Amer-ica. Britain’s strength in 1900 rested upon military and strategic conditions that we now believe to have been transient. Britain’s international position also rested upon the comparative power of its economy, but there has been no real agreement about how the British economy should or could have performed in the twentieth century. The vast majority (but not all) believes that the economy should have been stronger, but no-one has ventured to estimate Britain’s feasible growth rate. Economists, historians, political scientists and other social theorists have contributed to these debates. Until comparatively recently, reliable assessments of this diverse and specialised literature were few. Since 1990, however, the number of textbook treatments has multiplied and readers now have an extensive choice. This volume does not pretend to be a comprehensive analysis of Britain’s twentieth-century economy. In the space available only the main themes can be identified and the barest outlines given.