The English Economy Introduced
There was a time when the English economy was by far the largest in the world, that hasn't been the case in a long time. The industrial revolution started in England and it put them ahead of the rest of the world, a position they maintained until the damage done to their economy by the First World War. Today England no longer has the dominant position that it once did but it is still a major player on the world stage. As part of the European Union the economy of England has largely been integrated with the rest of Europe. However unlike most other countries they chose to keep their own currency. This has its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantage is that it allows the country to have its own monetary policy. The disadvantage is that it does hinder trade with other European countries.
Today England is a pretty typical post industrial country. The largest part of the economy is by far the service sector. One of the largest parts of the English economy is the banking sector. Unfortunately this meant that during the recent global financial crisis England way particularly hard hit. The result has been that the country has been struggling compared to a lot of others and will likely lag behind for a while.
In a lot of ways England is different than most other European countries. There is very little public ownership of businesses and the unions are much weaker than they are in other countries in Europe. This hasn't always been the case but over the last few years England has made a real effort to change the economy so that there was less government involvement. This has had the benefit of lower taxes in England than you will find in other European countries. It also helped to give the country a strong economy although this was largely undone by the recent financial crisis.
Despite being a post industrial country there is a surprising amount of agriculture in the English economy. They are almost able to meet their own food needs domestically, quite an achievement for such a small and densely populated country. There is also a fairly strong manufacturing sector in England.
There are a few issues facing England that it is going to have to deal with if it is to remain a strong economy. The biggest problem right now is cleaning up the mess that has been caused by the recent financial crisis. Unemployment has become a problem and government spending which was a problem before the crisis is now a serious issue. The other big problem that England needs to deal with is the lack of natural resources. While the country does have some resources they do need import a lot of them from overseas. Particularly oil which is always going to be a problem, especially if prices continue to rise.