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Business Structure and Economic Strategy

The value of all goods and services produced in the UK economy for final consumption is measured by gross domestic product (GDP). The main elements of the Government's economic strategy are:

• delivering macroeconomic stability;

• meeting the productivity challenge;

• increasing employment opportunity for all;

• ensuring fairness for families and communities, and

• protecting the environment.

Treasure is the department with prime responsibility for the Government's monetary and fiscal frameworks. It is also responsible for wider economic policy, which it carries out in conjunction with other government departments, such as Trade and Industry; Education and Employment; and the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

Free Trade. For a very long time Britain has been a trading nation – importing, exporting, investing abroad and receiving foreign investment. The Scottish philosopher, Adam Smith, argued in The Wealth of Nations (1776) that protectionism, putting up trade barriers between countries, was bad for everyone in the end. His ideas became the accepted orthodoxy, and during the following 100 years Britain got rid of its protective tariffs, and embraced free trade. The national economy is still mainly based on free markets.

One change in recent times is the list of Britain's trading partners. Joining the EU has meant a major move away form old markets and suppliers in the commonwealth (members of Britain's ex-empire), and towards new markets closer at hand, though the USA is just as important as ever. Britain imports most goods from Germany and the USA (12-14 per cent each of the total), then France (10 per cent) and the Netherlands (7-8 per cent). The top four export destinations are the same countries in the same order. About half of Britain's visible trade is now with the EU.

Natural Resources. Primary industries are those that exploit raw materials: agriculture, fishing, mining, oil extraction and so on. Agriculture is a small part of the economy, employing less than 2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The low level of employment in agriculture is explained by a high level of efficiency: British farms are big (though not by the standards of those in the USA or Australia) and highly mechanized. This efficiency has a downside. Parts of East Anglia have been turned into vast, featureless food-producing units, with an enormous reduction in wildlife populations.

Fishing has always been a natural activity for an island population. But this sector, too, employs only a fraction of the number of people it used to, due to increased mechanization and bigger boats with smaller crews. However, there are other limiting factors which mean that the British fishing fleet only catches two-thirds of the fish eaten by the nation. Membership of the EU has obliged Britain to allow European partners to fish closer to British coasts and share the fish in nearby waters. Iceland has prevented foreign boats from fishing in its waters, which were important for the British. In addition to this, stocks have been depleted by pollution and over-fishing: there simply are not enough fish to meet the demand. Workers in the industry complain bitterly about quotas (official limits on the numbers which can be fished within a certain period), but if the industry is not carefully controlled, there will be no future for the workers and no fish left.

Cheap, available energy was a major contributor to the industrial revolution 200 years ago, and it is just as important today.