ABSTRACT
On the eve of the First World War, Britain was one of the world’s three great economies. She was no longer the ‘workshop of the world’. The USA and Germany were forging ahead in industrial pro duction. But Britain, as the greatest trading and financial power, remained at the centre of the international economy. Moreover, there was optimism that the under-achievements and threats of the last quarter of the nineteenth century had been overcome and that a new era of competitiveness, expansion and prosperity could be expected [Doc. 1].
