ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Britain's relative decline from her mid-nineteenth-century position of world economic hegemony. The more fanciful explanations of Britain's post-war decline have tended to focus on the high level of government spending. A contrasting view of Britain's post-war experience is Charles Feinstein's, he believes that to compare Britain's slow post-war growth with the rapid growth of continental countries is misleading. Intervention was limited, however, by the structure of the economy, and by reluctance or inability on the part of the state. J. H. Plumb has suggested that in the late eighteenth century the American and French Revolutions had a cathartic effect on English society. There may have been defects in the supply of such people by educational institutions but, as Britain's standing in the scientific world proves, educationalists have responded to the once-valid criticism that Britain neglected science education. It is this disassociation between business and education which has been an essential theme of the chapter.
