British traditional simplified weight and measures’ system

Economy and geography of the United Kingdom

                The United Kingdom is a country of islands, mountains and marshes, of a bad weather, but good ideas for the future. Different actions throughout the years let Britain get the top position in the global economy. Its development has been visible for ages, however reached with a great support of other nations, several internal conflicts and gradual demolish of environment.

British economy and its sources of incomes and control

When it comes to economy, Britain is still the fifth power of the world (after United States of America, Japan, China and Germany) and the second one in Europe. The main sources of incomes are services (mainly banking and insurance) industry, developed agriculture, exploitation of coal, oil and gas and tourism (it’s the sixth most popular tourist destination country of the world with 27 million of tourists a year).

The economical centre of banking and insurance companies with the Stock Exchange is the ‘City’ of London and those together with the Treasury (Ministry of Finance working over economic and taxation policy) and the Bank of England (central bank responsible for both monetary and financial stability) have a viable influence on British economy. Its biggest problem is a difficulty to establish the necessary government intervention in finances and the rules of a free market.

Until the Big Bang of 1986 only British could buy and sell shares in corporations on the Stock Exchange and then, by 1990 more than 30 per cent of those companies came to foreign hands. The biggest corporations are Vodafone (communication), Shell (petrol), British Airways (flights), BAE Systems (airplanes’ building), Reuters (media) and Virgin Group (services).

Gross Domestic Product is an economical rate that factually reassumes the total value of goods and services produced in the country. In 2008 in UK it was estimated on $ 2,800 billion and the 6th highest all over the world.

British geography of lowlands, highlands, islands, water and natural resources

The UK covers the surface of almost 245,000 square kilometres which is the majority of the British Isles. The British Islands that we see in modern times were shaped by glacial movements and tectonic forces. Britain is separated to the Continent with a 35 kilometres-long English Channel (Dover-Calais) and now the ferry trade has evolved within the construction of the Channel Tunnel connecting Britain with France by the railway down the Channel.

The country has a coastline of 12,429 km and this result may grow according to the decrease of coastal cliffs (rocks and heights facing the coast in Dover, Kent, Dorset or Cornwall) and a 360 kilometres long land border with the Republic of Ireland (Eire). The tallest peak of Britain is Scottish mountain Ben Nevis (1344 metres over the sea level) and the lowest point is in the Fens (East England) which is situated 4 metres beneath the sea level. Britain has a developed system of rivers (like Thames, Severn - the longest river in the UK, 354 km, flows through both Wales and England), lakes (like Loch Ness, Loch Morar - the deepest lake, Lough Neagh - the largest one), canals ( they provided transportation at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution), dams and reservoirs (to collect water for drinking and industry).

The most significant natural resources are coal, gas, oil, limestone, chalk, iron, tin and lead that are exploited with a huge income to the budget and the development of industry connected with them. The climate of United Kingdom is warm, coastal with a profusion of strong winds, fogs and rains. The decisive impact depends on the Gulf Stream and the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Winters are cool, there’s no snow despite of bigger mountains and the summers are quite warm.

British territory can be divided into lowlands (South East) which are better developed when it comes to technology in industry, services and agriculture and highlands (the residual areas) with a profusion of lakes mainly in Scotland and Wales. Around the British Islands there are almost a thousand islands that come under British jurisdiction but sometimes can boost a virtual independence, like Isle Man, Orkney, Shetlands, Hebrides, etc.

British environment under the influence of agriculture and settlement

The English countryside has changed more in past 40 years than in the previous 400 years, as because of the shortage of food during the Second World War, the farms were mechanised and a lot of chemical sustains were used with the damaging effect on the countryside though with a flourishing effect on the economy. The agriculture (sheep farming, wheat and barley, huge arable lands) provides 60 per cent of food needs employing only 1 per cent of total population. Similar effect of destruction was caused when people that moved to the cities in the late 1950s to get a job in developing municipal industry, moved to the villages again searching cheaper land to settle down as the prizes of accommodation in cities has radically grown.

The suburban areas around metropolis developed which is a positive trend, however the same time the settlement destroyed environmental monuments like Lake District, which is a most-famous and touristically developed national park (among 14 ones) in United Kingdom and is a shelter for unique forms of natural British wildlife like red squirrel, sundews or carnivorous plants. Since 1945 half of the ancient woods that grew in Britain were cut down.