THE FUTURE OF BRITISH TRADE1
| Author | A. K. Cairncross |
| Published date | 01 June 1954 |
| Date | 01 June 1954 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1954.tb00921.x |
SCOTTISH
JOURNAL
OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY
JUNE
1954
THE FUTURE
OF
BRITISH TRADE'
I
IK
the years since the war Britain
has
enjoyed an uninterrupted period
of prosperity far beyond any expectations formed while the war
was
in
progress and longer than any similar period in living memory.
There has been less poverty and less unemployment than ever before;
production and trade have risen to a record level; and the standard
of living of the mass
of
the population has improved visibly. In five
out of the past six years
our
balance of payments has shown
a
surplus,
while before the war it was in deficit. All this has taken place in
spite of the damage and loss sustained during the war and the heavy
burden of defence throughout the post-war period.
Yet there is
a
widespread feeling
of
uneasiness that does not
diminish
as
the years
of
prosperity succeed one another:
a
sense of
vulnerability and precariousness to which the Prime Minister gave
expression when he spoke
of
the nation
'
sitting on
a
trap-door
'.
Many
people feel that things are
too
good to last. that we have done little
or
nothing to earn our good fortune, and that the mysterious economic
forces that have carried
us
along
so
smoothly must sooner or later
plunge
us
again into the nightmare
of
the thirties. They are strength-
ened in these forebodings by the repeated economic crises through
which we have passed; by the rumblings
of
a
slump that
is
for ever
approaching, but never seems to reach, the United States: and by the
swift progress
of
our trade competitors. It is
as
much from nervousness
3s
from insight that the watchword
'
productivity
'
is
so
noisily raised.
Delivered at the inaugural meeting
of
the
Scottish Economic Society on
16th March
1954
and adapted from an address delivered at the University of
Southampton
on
10th
February
1954.
1
I05
To continue reading
Request your trial