A Brief Business Review of Britain During Later Nineteen Century and 1913

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1. Introduction

This report focus on the brief statement of British business status with her heavy industry, civic industry, government policy, income level and investment to show the readers that although Britain had problems( retardation ) during this period, it is a good place for foreign investors to invest in.

2. Heavy Industry

Most studies of the British economy in this period emphasize the continued over -commitment to the old basic industries. In 1907, coal, iron and steel, engineering, shipbuilding and textiles still accounted for nearly half the net industrial output and 70 per cent of all exports. By the Census of Production in 1907 there had been a great progress of steam-powered mechanization in industries, especially, an immense deepening of using in coal, iron/steel and shipbuilding industries. Water and wind power of the traditional kind, was now of little significance, though new-style hydraulic and pneumatic machines were being increasingly developed.

Moreover, the power of gas and oil engines and electric generators was being added to that of steam and many goods were being mass-produced.(Musson, 159)

2.1 Coal

Throughout this period British industry continued to be based primarily on coal for fuel and power. Ever-increasing quantities were consumed in the furnaces and steam-engines of iron and steel works, textile mills and a widening range of other manufactures, in gasworks and coking plant, in railway locomotives and steam-ships, and also in domestic households. Since the later 19 century, the electricity had begun to be developed, the steam-driven generators still depended on coal. Although internal-combustion engines have introduced in the 1860s and developed from the 1890s, they presented no serious challenge to coal and steam power in this period. In 1913, there were 3289 collieries in Britain, operated by 1589 separate undertakings: thus the average colliery employed 340 men and produced 87000...