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I THINK, its because we used to crusade and conquer other countries, we discovered and owned Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Several other European countries etc.

There's a lot more to Englands richness than its once large Empire. England in the 13th century on was reknown for its Trade, especially English wool, cloth, Livestock and its Navy, and that is when Englands greatness and richness was founded properly. Merchants and trading went up, the rich got richer but the poor remained poor and were lucky to find work with the rich and on it went like that.

Another prosperity of England was having and developing down the line great skill in turning English wool into cloth so that the middle man was cut out and it would be even more money for them.

Then inns were made all over England that would take in travellers, and they had money and were very well kept, also foreigners came in back in these days and they were spending a lot as well. Another centre of Englands riches was the church, where people would go not just to worship but transact business, to store their money in trust in the churches strong-rooms, for a nominal sum naturally.

By the 1600s the Royal navy had excelled anything it had done in the past, and ship building created jobs and England became one of the top powers by that stage.

But English Agriculture was the chief occupation of Englands wealth, because cultivation was for everyone in the community right down to sheep and cattle grazing.

By the 1700s the English wool trade had reached its height and it was there the countrys wealth became extrodaniry, even more than the top nations in Europe.

But Englands richness even back then faced a danger and that was the system of capatalism. Markets increased, and monopolies advanced rapidly. Merchant princes and capatalists were appearing more and more, and therefore the class segragation structure. Prices for things expanded, and with them rents and wages, but it was a hardship for the people in general as they never prospered the way the country or the few did. But England had excellent financial soundness in the early 1700s.

Then came the inventions that was to take England/Britain into orbit with richness and that was the Industrial Revolution and British railways, on which by the mid 1800s up to 19 million people travelled annually, by the 1880s Englands capital plus profits had gone well over a billion pounds alone, now in the 1880s that was astronomical money for a country, and on top of that the yearly costs for working the railways was covered as well, materials, men etc.

Also over the centurys there has been a large Gold and Silver reserve been built up, but i understand the recent government has stupidly sold a good chunk of it.

On top of all that also Londons docks right up till 1909 had 3.000 acres of docks which handled yearly trade to again well over a billion pounds a year. Not to mention Liverpool, Bristol and other English docks that also prospered.

But then came WW1 and WW2 and that sacrificed and cost us not only England/Britain its finest men but equally financially spent it as well, that was the massive contribution and sacrifice that was made.

England today is still rich, but the people are still nowhere near as wealthy as they should be, however there is a lot to be said for the National Health which is better than most. England is still rich today though with Wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, fruit and vegetables, fish, livestock, oil and natural gas, coal, agriculture, banking, food processing and much more besides, but the biggest problem is greed from the ones controlling it all.

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13y ago

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