Account for the fact that Britain was the richest country in Europe Essay

Account for the fact that Britain was the richest country in Europe between 1870-1914 - Essay Example Military might was a blessing in disguise for the country since it could later heavily rely on its pervasiveness and efficiency to trample on its predicaments and rise to the mighty British Empire. The author records that the British militarism at one point facilitated extraction of taxes such that it surpassed that rate applied by France especially during the Napoleonic Wars, at the height of the French dominion. This marked the protracted rise of Britain, to a greater height than the mightiest European power could afford. Within the short historical period of reorganization, Britain had amassed the power that a political giant needs to position itself in the world economy arena. In order for an economic giant to handle abundance, it has to undergo the relevant infrastructure modification one of which is political might according to Mann (1987). The British navy was soon the envy of any political establishment, and its might sooner enabled the tramping over the world in a successful manner than the other European compatriots and in a more timely opportunity. Militarism could enable the British leadership to set any financial agenda without fear of subjects’ protestation, for instance high taxation incidence that could go as high as 35 per cent. Tight financial controls of the territory coupled to the efficient and pervasive militarism were the necessary ingredients to pursue a takeover of France’s territories before anyone could notice. It could only take a well established country to absorb and integrate the mixed fortunes of eighteenth to nineteenth centuries’ shifts in economic cultures. Efficient stabilization during the changes occasioned by agrarian and industrial revolutions to maximum benefits needed a stable economy like Britain had evolved to be. Adopting the transitions while cautiously sticking to helpful practices of the former regime happened particularly well in Britain. By the mid nineteenth century, British economic