Economic history of Britain
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It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Modern economic history of Britain. (Discuss) |
In 1997, the Labour Party swept to power with a huge majority in the House of Commons. On entering power Tony Blair's Labour Party stuck with the former Conservative government's spending plans. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, gained a reputation as the "prudent Chancellor" and helped to inspire renewed confidence in Labour's ability to manage the economy. One of the first acts that the new Labour government embarked on was to give the power to set interest rates to the Bank of England, effectively ending the use of interest rates as a political tool. Labour also introduced the minimum wage to the United Kingdom, which has been raised from time to time since its introduction. The Blair government also introduced a number of strategies to cut unemployment. Unemployment has fallen back to the level it was in the late 1970s, although it still remains significantly higher than it was during the post-war era and the 1960s.
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The 21st century
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It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Modern economic history of Britain. (Discuss) |
By 2000 the world was a very different place from the world of 1900, and Great Britain itself had undergone massive change as well.
In the Labour Party's second term in office, beginning in 2001, the party increased taxes and borrowing. The government wanted the money to increase spending on public services, notably the National Health Service, which they claimed was suffering from chronic under-funding.
Growth rates have consistently been between 2% and 3% since the year 2000 and inflation has levelled off at around 2%. The Bank of England's control of interest rates has been a major factor in the stability of the British economy in recent years. The pound has continued to fluctuate however, reaching a low against the dollar in 2001 (to a rate of $1.37 per £1), but rising again to a rate of approximately $2 per £1 in 2007. Against the Euro, the pound has become steady at a rate of approximately €1.45 per £1.
For further details on Britain’s contemporary economy, see Economy of the United Kingdom.
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Footnotes
- ^ Denis Judd; Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present. (1996). p. 294.
- ^ Was slavery the engine of economic growth?
- ^ Jeffry A. Frieden. "International Investment and Colonial Control: A New Interpretation." International Organization, 48:4 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 559-593.
- ^ John G. Ruggie. 1982. "International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order," International Organization pp. 379-415.
- ^ Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 207.
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References
- D. H. Aldcroft and H. W. Richardson, The British Economy, 1870-1939 (1969).
- B. W. E. Alford, British Economic Performance, 1945-1975 (1988).
- J. H. Clapham; An Economic History of Modern Britain: The Early Railway Age, 1820-1850 Cambridge University Press, 1926
- M. J. Daunton; Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1700-1850 Oxford University Press, 1995
- Michael Ball and David Sunderland. An Economic History of London, 1800-1914 Routledge, 2001.
- D. K. Fieldhouse, Economics and Empire, 1830-1914 (1973).
- Roderick Floud and Paul Johnson. The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain (2004)
- Roderick Floud and Deirdre McCloskey, eds. The Economic History of Britain since 1700 2 vol (1994)
- Sara Horrell; "Living Standards in Britain 1900-2000: Women's Century" National Institute Economic Review 2000. pp 62+.
- A. S. Milward, The Economic Effects of the Two World Wars on Britain (1970).
- G. C. Peden, British Economic and Social Policy: Lloyd George to Margaret Thatcher (1985).
- Henry Pelling, A History of British Trade Unionism (1963).
- Rex Pope; Atlas of British Social and Economic History since C.1700 Routledge, 1990
- S. Pollard, Britain's Prime and Britain's Decline: The British Economy, 1870-1914 (1989).
- S. Pollard, The Development of the British Economy, 1914-1967 (1967).
- E. Roberts, Women and Work, 1840-1940 (1988).
- S. B. Saul, The Myth of the Great Depression, 1873-1896 (1969).
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See also
- History of coal mining
- Economy of the United Kingdom
- History of the United Kingdom
- Dialectics of progress
- Global Empire
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