Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The surprising story of Britain's economy from boom to bust and back again

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It’s fair to say that Weldon succeeds in answering it with his pacy, vivid canter through the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, post-war decline and resurgence in the 1980s, right up to the current crisis.

In conversation with journalist, author and broadcaster

Muddling Through’ is a superb, detailed overview, charting 200 years of British economic history. For a nation immersed in the traditions of entrepreneurial innovation and ambitious start-up companies, it’s surprising how little space economic history seems to occupy in the minds of the general population. Surely all British school children should be given a more detailed idea of how the Capitalist engines of The City of London operate, considering their enormous influence on the economy. 2008 reminds us of how high are the stakes when the global financial system goes wrong. Surely such scandalous collapses would be less likely if the masters of the financial universe were held to account by an educated, informed population… The author points to vested interests being a powerful force in hampering economic progress. For example, politicians tried to manufacture pre-election booms which led to stop -go episodes. Union power prevented economic progress. Later the trade unions were reformed by Thatcher and this eventually led to an economic revival. The second weakness has to do with recent financial crises, 2007-9, and 2019-20. The book presents the UK dealing with each of these largely in isolation. This is in marked contrast to the accounts by Adam Tooze (“Crashed” and “Shutdown”, two great book), which highlight a key role for the US Federal Reserve Bank.A book that tells the story of Britain’s economic history over the past 200 years could hardly be more timely. The country is emerging from the grip of a pandemic that triggered the deepest recession in more than 300 years and the biggest annual increase in public borrowing in peacetime. At the same time businesses are grappling with the fallout from Brexit in the form of significant new barriers to trade, leading to empty shelves and staff shortages. Meanwhile, the government is split between a prime minister who believes that Britain can spend its way to a “roaring twenties” and a chancellor who fears that a heavily indebted government is at risk of an inflationary bust. So where do we go from here? A central theme to the book is how the role and shape of the state has changed and adapted over time - not often for purely ‘ideological’ reasons, but more in response to economic developments and challenges, as well as the need to cope with huge global events (WW1 and WW2 loom large). A terrific achievement, covering clearly but with subtlety everything from the spinning jenny to Covid-19'

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through by Duncan Weldon review

If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. A terrific achievement, covering clearly but with subtlety everything from the spinning jenny to Covid-19’ It uses modern measures of the size of the economy, specifically Gross National Product, only developed since 1950, to provide a basis not for improvement (average income per person) but also levels of spending (% on education, defence etc) as well as national debt. This provides a framework to identify and discuss changes that might not have otherwise been clear. Even to those having to deal with them. A great little book going through the economic history of the UK since the Industrial Revolution, covering the issues of each time and the ideas driving decision making of the politicians in power. Writing style was engaging and witty, and made the book far more readable than the subject matter would suggest. The Malthus theory states that the world is governed by a brutal logic; human wants are infinite but human means were finite. Put simply, to limit starvation and masses of poor people, the best way to restrict population growth. Feeding the poor would only result in more poorer people. In some way it links in with your theory about housing and governments liking to restrict the population growth and therefore in the short run/their premiership taxation costs. Rapid population decline is not what governments want, as like Spain in the 1930, there are not enough people to harvest the corn.The UK is, at the same time, both one of the world's most successful economies and one of Europe's laggards. The country contains some of Western Europe's richest areas such as the south east of England, but also some of its poorest such as the north east or Wales. Looking into the past helps understand why. I have to thank the author for explaining to me what the Poor Laws and the Corn Laws of the 19th century were all about. I recall blindingly boring history lessons at school about these issues and as a consequence having little idea what they were about - but now I do. I found this book an entertaining read and informative about political economic issues since industrial revolution times in the UK. Obviously, there's a good deal to to take issue with here. For example, in his explanation of the lead up to the industrial revolution, there's no mention of the enclosures or any of the other profound changes to English agriculture which made the rise of capitalism possible. And his treatment of the Empire is cursory and downright shameful. However, it is argued that political power is a more important factor than the economic theories in deciding which economic policies are implemented by government. Consequently, political power, brought about by both a changing society and evolving political forces over the 200 years are identified by the author. How these political factors determined the economic strategy to be implemented by various governments are also explained in the book. This book is an extremely well written, clear and concise summary of British economic and political history covering the period from the period just prior to the Industrial Revolution to 2021.

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through — the end of British

It is emphasised that certain economic issues have repeated themselves over the last 200 years. It is also stressed and clearly explained how the past has repeatedly influenced how different governments respond to the prevailing economic climate. Hence the term ‘Muddling Through’. The book is also great for reminding oneself of the similarities between present and past and of the need to avoid past mistakes.The book has a few themes throughout the narrative - the importance of path dependence, the benefits of specialisation at various points (like the decline of agriculture during the World Wars that allowed Britain to focus on manufacturing and financial support for the Allies) or the impact of political decisions on economic reality (like the allocation of costs in things like the Corn Laws, the influence of the growth of home ownership on interest rate decisions etc). All of these points should be more present in the public debate, not just in Britain. I enjoyed this - it’s exactly the sort of readable, concise narrative (interspersed with enough statistics to help assure you it’s rigorous and some good anecdotes) that you’d expect from a BBC and Economist journalist.