Modern British Economic History (Volume 2)

Author: [British] K. Clapham, translated by Yao Zeng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: It is often questioned whether 1914 is not yet too recent to serve as an appropriate endpoint for this narrative. In a certain sense, 1914 may seem distant enough; but this perspective, I believe, is either a poet's perspective—if an economic writer can associate himself with such sublime matters—or more often the perspective of the ordinary self living day by day, convinced that problems and circumstances are constantly changing, when in fact they are not. From the historical self of "vondreitausendJahrensichweissRechenschaftzugeben" [to acknowledge the explanation from three thousand years], the war years appear very recent, and their importance is unmatched by any subsequent period. At the same time, for a historian, there is no period more convenient than this one. Moreover, in the economic history of Britain—or in Germany or Russia—this period has brought little new, except for accelerated development. The changes expected to occur in the next one or two generations appeared within a decade. In certain technical fields, inventions and adaptation to new environments meant not gains or losses, but survival or extinction, thus accelerating their realization. The latent forces that were clearly present but whose emergence was highly questionable have now emerged. New things did exist, but the main impression is one of a somewhat surprising continuity. Therefore, the year 1914 and the general structure of this conclusion have been retained.