The Rise and fall of the Mixed Economy in the United Kingdom (Essay Sample)

The Rise and fall of the Mixed Economy in the United Kingdom
Name
Institution
The United Kingdom was created after a concerted effort and campaign that began between merchants and the monarchs in England, Ireland and Scotland and a number of other empires during the 16th and the 17th century. During these early turbulent times the British establishment in its formative years had to undertake several manoeuvres and wars to compose the majestic United Kingdom that the world knew in the 19th century. It is in the favour of these challenges that the mercantilist economy emerged as a fix for the problems of trade that the British witnessed (Ball, 2013). From time to time, many changes occur in the economy as a result of changes in technology, episodes of revolution and intellectual stimulation that changes the manner of public dispensation as well as enlightenment. Historically, the narratives of economic changes are sometime sporadic and sometime systematic and occasionally unexplainable (Prasad, 2006). The progress of the United Kingdom from mercantilism to present day capitalist free market and a liberal democracy working concurrent with the monarch has witnessed a multitude of turns and twists along the way.
The mixed economy in the United Kingdom did not rise out of a cheap or easy progress. From around 1770s to around 1820s, there was an episode of intense innovation and changes that swept across the country as well as its international maritime empires ranging from the Barbados to Northern America (Ashworth, 2013). This episode popularly dabbed the industrial revolution made the United Kingdom one of the wealthiest and most powerful empires. These changes influenced the new empire to expand their influence across most of the European nations and the establishment of overseas colonies across Africa, the Americas and Asia. Although it has been remarked that the industrial revolution was a revolution about garments and clothing, there was much to it regarding the intellectualism and intellectual transformation that accompanied the process. For instance, it was the industrial revolution that was a direct result of the Scottish enlightenment that gave rise to the American industrialism in the later years of the 19th and early 20th century (Florence, 2013). Although contemporary United Kingdom is largely influenced and intensely affiliated with the United States in diverse ways, the symbiotic relationship between the two great nations remains to define and determine global trends and progress to date.
Great Britain was a place bustling with ideas and new intellectuals promoting entrepreneurship across the globe. It was at London that massive capital was first invested and used to erect massive ventures across the globe which led the likes of Cecile Rhodes of the British South African Company to establish some of the magnificent mining and gem trading companies the world has today like De Beers Inc (Algan, Dustmann, & Manning, 2010). It is true that these companies were not only creating new products but they also supported movements and intellectual development into global entrepreneurship. Without the promotion of enterprises and global business, the world could have remained largely innocently delusional and backward. The present day United kingdom’s intellectuals like John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith and many others forged the ideal of ‘Creative Destruction’ as the mantra of capitalist free market economy and influenced governments and governance practices across the globe (Cassis, 2010). The movement of natural philosopher like Charles Darwin brought other ideologies which had a far reaching influence on humanity and on human welfare. Steam power, the spinning machines, coal and steel making as well as other technologies stood out and eventually transformed the economy as well as the modalities of nationhood.
The progress of the British establishment from a loosely regulated and governed empire of rivals and merchants has never been by a dint of chance. The duke of Wellington and their bothers after defeating Napoleon at Waterloo determined to build the empire upon whose rule and leadership the sun would never set (Pollard, 2014). A lot of sacrifices and crisis have been borne along the way and from the very onset to the present. A great deal of transformation has also taken place during the World Wars I and II and when the United States actually advanced massive loans to the ailing economy to revamp its vigour. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill made some of the very useful considerations that sealed the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United Sates. In the burgeoning global economy, several loans and grants have been exchanged between the nations to sustain civility and progress during those dark times (Sobotka, Skirbekk & Philipov, 2011). Later on the United States introduced the Breton Woods institutions as well as rolled out the Marshall Plan to continually repair the broken United Kingdom during the period.
In summary, the new technologies like stem engine, the rail-roads, steel works and many other new vibrant technologies gradually transformed the livelihoods and the economy in very profound ways (Marrano, Haskel & Wallis, 2009). It is true of economic and social prog...