British Industry [antikvár]

BRITISH INDUSTRY i. A GENERAL SURVEY Modern industrialism, which is characterised by the large-scale production of goods in factories operated by power-machinery and by the widespread use of mechanical transport, looks upon Great Britain of the late eighteenth century as its birthplace. In this country many of the new technical processes which transformed methods of manufacture were devised or were first applied to industry. In the development of the steam-engine, in the application of the new types of power-driven machinery to the textile trades, in the revolutionary changes in methods of iron and steel production, and in the creation of modern engineering, Great Britain took the lead. In close association with these developments in manufacture and transport there grew up during the nineteenth century an international trade vastly greater in volume and far more widespread than had previously existed. Great Britain came to export a high proportion of the products of her factories and to draw from abroad in exchange much of the raw materials and the foodstuffs which she required. In 1914 over a third of her industrial production was exported ; and the rise in her population and in her standard of life during the previous century was conditioned by this industrial specialisation and by its corollary, the international exchange of goods and services. Modern industrialism has now spread over a large part of the world. The predominance of Great Britain in a wide range of industries has long since passed away, and she can claim only a share of the massive technical innovations of modern times. In the export of manufactured goods she is now only one among many. Yet manufacturing and mining have remained of quite peculiar importance to this country, and they employed at the time of the last census (1931) some 45 per cent of the total occupied population, while the proportion engaged in agriculture was smaller than that of any other country. Thus Great Britain still provides the most striking example of an industrial country. In spite of the changes which the war has brought about, and although it may be expected that Great Britain will attempt to supply herself with a rather larger proportion of her foodstuffs than in the past, "this characteristic is likely to remain. Without specialisation on manufacturing industry and without a large export trade in manufactured goods, she cannot hope to maintain her economic prosperity. Indeed, because of the loss during the war of a large part of, her toreign investments, exports of manufactured goods will be even more necessary to her than previously. 7