UK real GDP per capita since 1300.
This shows UK real GDP per capita in the UK (statistics are estimated by Bank of England using historical sources)
Between 1351 and 1651, real GDP per capita was constant at around £1,000 per person. There was hardly any economic growth in the Middle Ages, living standards were stagnant, life expectancy short, and poverty was endemic. The £1,000 per capita was also inequitably distributed, with most people struggling to meet the basics of life.
However, from the industrial revolution, living standards start to improve. Of course, in the Victoria Age, conditions for the working class were still very grim, with relatively low wages, poor working conditions and still life expectancy.
A look at different aspects of UK economic history, concentrating on the different decades of the Twenty and Twenty-First Century. Includes histories of particular sectors, such as housing and the coal industry.
- The economy of the 1920s – a legacy of war debt, deflation and life under the gold standard
- Causes of the Great Depression – What caused big depression?
- The economy of the 1930s – the economics of mass unemployment, but also economic recovery and growth of suburbia.
Post war economy
- Post-war Boom
- 1960s – The ‘You’ve never had it so good era’ starts to unwind.
- 1970s – The Era of Discontent. Strikes, 3 day weeks, inflation, boom and bust. The 70s had everything except stability
- 1980s – Boom and Bust economy – The UK economy in the 1980s
- Late 1980s and ERM a
- 1990s – Recession and great stability – Recovering from the recession and leaving ERM
- The economics of the 2000s – from stability to financial crisis
- 1992-2007 – The great moderation – a period of economic growth between 1992 and 2007
- 2010-16 – The austerity years – The economic record of Cameron and Osborne.
Recessions
Devaluations
Housing Market
- UK housing market – a history of UK housing from Victorian slums and workhouses to the recent boom in prices.
Sectors of the economy
- Deindustrialisation – the relative decline of the manufacturing sector
- The decline of the UK coal industry – How an industry went from employing one million workers to less than a few thousand.
Inflation
Balance of payments
Interest rates
Historical interest rates in the UK
Other articles
- 1980s – The Thatcher era gave us two deep recessions, an experiment with monetarism mass unemployment, broke the power of trades and one of the most memorable booms of post-war Britain.
Ireland
About The Author
1 thought on “UK Economic History”