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History Corner
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Margaret Thatcher On
The Benefits Of Industrial Competition
Margaret Thatcher, The
Downing Street Years (1993)
‘Britain in 1979 was a
nation that had had the stuffing knocked out of it with progressively more
severe belabourings over the previous hundred years.
Beginning in
the 1880s, our industrial supremacy had been steadily eroding in the face of
first American, then German competition.
To be sure, some part of this erosion was inevitable and even welcome.
As the
pioneer of the industrial revolution, Britain enjoyed a head start over its
competitors that was bound to diminish as nations with larger populations and
more abundant natural resources entered the race.
But since their rise
would mean the growth of large export markets for Britain as well as fierce
competition in domestic and third markets Imperial Germany, for instance, was
Britain's second largest export market in 1914 this commercial rivalry was
more blessing than curse.’
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