British Entrepreneurship between 1870 and 1914 - Essay Example

These traits include a dismal failure to adapt to new technologies, a gross misunderstanding as to the relevance of science in industrial efficiency, an obstinacy to stick to low-yielding established industrial sectors, a dearth of relevant managerial and organizational skills, an inability to delegate responsibility to subordinates and to take advantage of talented people having complementary proficiencies and a general lack of trust and faith in the British entrepreneurial potential (Aldcroft 1981) .

At some time during the late 19th century, Great Britain fell victim to an economic decline. Various Historians tend to facilitate diverse reasons as to this economic demise of the Victorian Britain. Some historians attribute this economic decline to the rampant alterations in the world economy, emanating from the proliferation of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. There is one other school of historians, who link the economic fall of Victorian Britain to the lacunas existing within the British economy.

Many historians blatantly profess that this so-called economic decline of Britain in the late 19th century could be understood and analyzed only in a relative perspective. As per these historians, the economic meltdown in the late 19th century Britain stands to be plausible only when one compares the performance of the British economy to other major industrial economies like the US and Germany. According to Alford, "British enterprise, it will be argued, did not decline during this period: it remained remarkably constant and inflexible (1996).

" On the contrary, the available statistical data also to some extent indicates that in fact the British GDP was on the rise in the period 1870-1890, irrespective of a sluggish annual rate of growth. Crouzet (1982) argues that the growth rate of Britain, which rested at 3.1 percent in the period 1811-1877, came down to 1.6 percent between 1877 and 1913. Historians also tend to differ, as far as the onset of this economic decline is concerned decline. A majority of the historians identify the year 1873 as the time when Britain slipped into a prolonged era of economic slowdown.

Others argue that the UK experienced a remarkable economic growth in the period 1820-1830. Thus, Victoria's accession tends to be the chronological coordinate that ushered in an era of economic decline (Crouzet 1982). Realistically speaking, in consonance with the available statistical data, 1870 could be considered the point of genesis of Britain's economic decline. It was only in the period between 1870 and 1913, when Britain's share of the global industrial output, which rested at 31.8 percent, nosedived to a pathetic and alarming 14 percent (Crouzet 1982).

There is no denying the fact that a majority of the historians hold that the late Victorians happened to be grave failures, as far as the realm of entrepreneurship was concerned. As far as the entrepreneurial acumen of late Victorians is concerned, the analysis of their failure tends