Global Leadership in Commerce and Industry, 1815–1914

Abstract

From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 up to a decade or two before World War I in 1914, British manufacturing and international trade dominated the rest of the world. After 1919, however, its leadership entered into a long, slow decline, to be overtaken in the West eventually by both Germany and the United States. Only since the last of the 1980s and early 1990s has it been able to stop the decline and turn itself around. Today, the business system of Great Britain appears to have returned to a leadership position of influence in banking, finance, and the petrochemical industry. Britain’s businesses also play an important role in the nations of the European Union and in global markets as well.