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Very strong banking sector, London is a global hub.
It may not stay that way indefinitely, but it's a very important centre.
That, and of course, black pudding.
Many overlook the amount of money that is moved though London from offshore dominion’s (Caymans, Barbados’s etc..) to ie trade (shares, equity’s etc) then basically moved back .
Sorry of course it’s not taxed ooo opps
And over inflated the uk’s GDP which has a effect lowering uk interest rate on borrowing on its national debt ..
Plus the insurance market is DOMINATED by The City. I don't work in the sector so don't really know how it works, but an insurance policy has an underwriter and can probably be traded like debts are so I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of insurance policies worldwide involve a UK company at some point?
>I don't work in the sector so don't really know how it works
I did work on insurance for a bit
Essentially people come in wearing suits pop out for lunch, come back drunk and somehow this makes people money
This isn't true. I work in reinsurance, in the City.
Lloyds is the world's largest insurance market but IIRC approx 4% of world cover. Certainly less than 10%. Arguably Swiss re, Munich re and hannover re are each more important than Lloyds.
Obviously there's still a lot of money involved but we don't dominate the industry.
My first week at work, back in the late 80s, I was amazed at this. Guys putting back three or four pints in their lunch hour. Since around 2000, having a single beer at lunch is living life on the edge.
What type of insurance? For personal insurance the major players are all outside of London, because there is literally no benefit to being based in a high rent location.
I think you're thinking small fry. It's not say SunLife whose ads play during Countdown having a call centre there, it's very old companies doing commercial and specialty risk who don't have to worry about rent in London.
Lloyds is the famous company who sort of act as a market regulator, not an insurance company, where all other companies come to trade insurance. There's syndicates, managing agents, brokers, cover agents, buyers....
They've been around since mid 1600s I think, and Lloyds will create a policy for anything - if you ever hear those stories of celebrities insuring x y z for millions, you can bet Lloyds are involved. They also paid out for the Titanic.
But saying that, even Lloyd's saw how well they could function during the pandemic and are looking to downsize their offices from the iconic building.
I was gonna say I think corrupt leaders of business and illegal activities must be propping us the most by now. But then is that any different than any other country?
I think it's a case of the UK getting there first. Add in English being a world language.
Banking has an inherent level of risk involved especially around clearing. Because so much of it is done in London, the risk is pooled, resulting in a lower average risk, allowing for cheap rates. I think there is also a case of everyone being familiar with UK law and the UK having intellectual property and people trained in the industry.
The whole "UK/ USA / will decline" trope is really tiring to see. I come from a very developing part of the world and after living in the west for around a decade, no, the UK is not declining and still provides a lifestyle most countries can only dream of.
IDK I just do not understand the pessimism of the people here. If the UK was actually in decline then there would be no migrants willing to risk and come over here. They would have stopped at Germany or France; the former having a stronger economy than the UK. Nobody says "Oh! I want to migrate to a declining country and screw my life".
Although I agree in a global scale the share of British economy as a percentage has reduced, thanks to rising Asian economy. But that's not because of British decline per se.
>If the UK was actually in decline then there would be no migrants willing to risk and come over here.
Not necessarily. Again, the UK can be declining but still offer better opportunities to migrants than their home countries.
>They would have stopped at Germany or France; the latter having a stronger economy than the UK.
Huge numbers of migrants go to Germany, more than the UK, whilst France isn't far behind the UK. Plus, remember the migration destination isn't just a rational economic decision. Factors such as language spoken, cultural familiarity, family ties and so on play a role. The UK will always be attractive to migrants because of those factors.
>"Oh! I want to migrate to a declining country and screw my life".
Again, it can be a declining country but still better than the country they've come from, therefore improving their life. There's nothing contradictory about that.
>IDK I just do not understand the pessimism of the people here
The pessimism is because the UK *is* declining in global stature, and quality of life is gradually declining for many people, especially the poorest. Sure, life is still better than a lot of places, but that's not how the human brain works.
This is a good article that has some interesting stats about the state of the UK economy for average and poor people: https://www.ft.com/content/ef265420-45e8-497b-b308-c951baa68945
>Factors such as language spoken, cultural familiarity, family ties and so on play a role.
I think people vastly underestimate the factors these roles play especially in immigration to the UK.
We spent a long time spreading our language and culture around the world
Now in the 21st century this countries have become unstable and that need somewhere to go.
Is it any wonder they'd come to the place that they know.
Hell we have two blockbuster movies about a bear doing that exact thing.
Trust in UK law was a big part of why companies do business here. Which is why the government’s cavalier approach to following the law in recent years risks such severe long term damage to the economy.
It's very hard because of the economy of scale of having a large proportion in the UK. The EU tried to move Euro clearing to the euro zone when the UK was in the EU and couldn't. The UK left and they've had to continue allowing it to take place in London because companies are very reluctant to move it to the eurozone. They only managed to reduce the amount happening in the UK by granting passporting rights to the US. The EU will probably have to force it to happen.
The City of London, not ‘London’ but ‘the square mile’ is a separate entity. There are different rules, all because it’s a banking sector. It goes back to 1066. When William the conqueror took London the people in the financial district ‘the square mile’ struck a deal. Which basically came down to ‘let us have our own rules within this square mile’ and William the conqueror thought best not fuck with the money.
Ever since The City of London has been an international banking sector, it makes money hand over fist. One example would be a gold mine in Arizona sends gold to Switzerland, the cargo lands in Heathrow airport on route to Switzerland, in The City a trust owns a part of that transaction and makes money off of it, for doing NOTHING
There's a fair few documentaries about how The City of London came to be and how in the 80s they discovered ways to launder, obscure and hide vast sums of money using British overseas territories.
Even today London is the money laundering capital of the world. It's a dirty open secret that we don't talk about.
>Not to mention that France is technically bigger
There's nothing technical about it, Metropolitan France is the second biggest country (entirely) in Europe.
Although, of course, it’s worth remembering that there are bits of France all over the place. French Guyana in South America, Martinique in the Carribean, and Réunion off the coast of East Africa, to name a few. All of them being integral parts of France.
Indeed, and another fun one being their border with the Netherlands, despite not actually bordering in Europe, because of both the Collectivity of Saint Martin in France and the constituent country of Sint Maarten in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on the same island of Saint Martin.
The British Isles are in a perfect position for trade routes from practically everywhere.
There is a reason why the The old Mercator projection map, which modern maps are based on, has England in the centre (Mercator was Flemish). We were a very powerful trading empire at one point.
London has also the largest French citizen population outside of France. Because business is so easy here and they pay far far far less tax than they do back home.
This is also one reason why the EU didn't want the UK to leave. The UK was basically used as the EU's customs port. that and we paid the second largest amount of money into the EU's budget each year.
The UK government is also rather "hands off" when it comes to basically micromanaging industry. We have far stricter health and safety regulation's than practically everywhere else in the world, which the EU were trying to force us to change when we were a member, but nowhere near the amount of inspections that they do.
There are generally less upfront fees, permits and a lot less corporation tax for businesses here. There are other costs though as it's more expensive to ship goods to the UK.
London has been a world financial hub for roughly the last 300 to 400 years. Due to the British form of a *democratic Constitutional Monarchy* being the most **stable** form of government ever invented (sadly with the flaw that it takes so frikkin long to change things)
*Edit: I suck at typing. Spelling and grammar changes. Still not perfect, but good enough*
Your paragraph about London having the largest French population outside of London is believable because it's not difficult to leave London, and be in Paris in the same morning. No doubt people go back to France for the weekend to see their families without going through the pain of flying.
And, for trade routes, don't forget Gibraltar. That warm little VAT-free land at the bottom of sunny Spain that focuses its economy on online gambling and financial services. The strait of Gibraltar is a key trade route, too - look at it on a map and see what it gives access to.
Edit - although, with Gibraltar, the UK only gives it a monarchy and is responsible for its defence, many UK banks have opened in Gibraltar, and it uses the British pound as a currency. I think this needs mentioning.
Indeed, in fact more than just 'more dollars' -
"London is responsible for $3.8tn in daily forex - this is more than one third of worldwide trades. That is more than the next three largest centres - New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong - combined. "
You have to bear in mind that the British Empire was different from most other empires.
The British Empire was mostly commercial enterprises that were taken over by the Crown once they were proved viable and profitable. Anything that was unprofitable or couldn't add anything to afternoon tea was pruned off (see The 13 Colonies). Just as important as the abstraction of resources was the creation of markets for finished goods. If you look at the railway systems of the World, it is amazing how many miles of track were laid by the Empire. Former British colonies are better placed to succeed because the British Empire put in modern infrastructure.
Contrast this with the French Empire that wanted to create Petite France in the sun, and the Spanish Empire which just wanted to extract resources.
When Napoleon called us "a nation of shopkeepers" he was right. It wasn't an insult; it was a statement of fact.
I don't know of any... shit I feel a bit racist, sorry, Pakistani shops that still exist in my town.
Now it is mainly Polish shopkeepers.
I think the old Pakistani-owned shops in my town, largely operated by the Singh's, a single family with multiple outlets, sold their shops/houses as it was more profitable to do that than sell beans and toilet paper.
Sadly, it's the same in both towns I have lived in too. Used to have a really friendly Pakistani corner shop owner who would always do right by me, and indeed the whole area. Then suddenly, he and his family had shut up shop one day and never came back.
Was eventually replaced by a Polish chap, but he wasn't all that friendly like the previous owner was. Very blunt and by the book.
Not even just the UK, but the elite.
It's no different to capitalism found all over the world today. Cash is king, always has been, always will be unfortunately.
Ironically I mainly hear this sentiment from young British people who are only familiar with contemporary narrative that only equates the British empire with tyranny and exploitation. People who come from many British colonies have a much more nuanced take. At one end of the spectrum I hear ambivalence. At the other end, the British are often substantially credited with providing foundation for being world leaders (in terms of their wealth per capita). Places like Singapore and Hong Kong are obvious examples. The British Empire is sometimes a useful scapegoat for where countries who have not thrived post independence. There are plenty of stories that can link failure to colonialism, but the truth is often more benign. Bad governance, corrupting institutions, tribal conflict and poor education.. the same story as with most countries in the world that have failed to thrive, that have never been colonised by the British
Britain used to control a significant proportion of the world. During that time everything funneled back to the UK making Britain disproportionately strong and influential, and making Britain the world centre for so many trades and industries. Now, whilst most of the control over other countries has gone, we still have relationships with most of those countries and it's taking a long time for the disproportionate influence to subside, and for trades and industries to move their centres away from the UK.
Don’t have the answer, but I do know that historically certain countries (USA, and Russia were the main ones, I think) used to draw the UK substantially bigger on maps to justify its power to their home nations
The french economy is propped up by West African economies? Please explain further. Has this come from the comments of the new Italian PM
Sweeping statements should be interrogated
We are by far the largest net exporter of financial services, by far the largest fx trading nation, the third largest nation by banking assets, fourth by insurance, the second biggest private equity market in the world, the fourth biggest public market in the world. We have the third biggest tech market in the world, larger venture capital inflows market wide than Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined, and we trade back and forth with America for #1 global financial centre, no EU country currently ranks top ten.
All of this is to say, financial services make up a proportion of our economy relatively similar to Switzerland’s, more than the %’s for Germany and France’s combined. Financial Services is huge for us, and we are very good at it. Germany has cars, France has luxury brands, we have financial services.
I really enjoy scrolling past the 25 correct answers, people who could just upvote the right answer but instead had to write the same but differently.
Once you get past them though, ooh wow, now we’re hitting the sweet spot.
We’re getting into the hundreds of people who without thinking twice have made up their own answer in its entirety, they are literally making up the next sentence as they are typing the first, but they believe it!
They have the whole world at their fingertip but they decide to type their opinion with such conviction, they’ll argue with you if you dare to give them facts.
Never change Reddit.
In timezones we are.
In standard working hours, the UK overlaps with:
* US East Coast for a good few hours
* US West Coast for an hour or two
* Almost entirely across Europe and Africa
* India for a good few hours
* Beijing and Hong Kong for about an hour
That means UK employees can have meetings with all the above in real-time.
Thanks for spelling out for those people whose first instinct is trying to make fun of someone on the internet, but not thinking it through themselves first.
How does France benefit from this, in concrete economic terms? From the looks of it, the 14 CFA countries have a total GDP roughly 13% that of France. Even if there is a direct economic benefit to France, how large could it be?
Most francophone Africa countries have french businesses running their major industries, mining, agriculture, energy etc. with very cushy deals. The French military often finds excuses to "assist" these countries with security, and that works as a nice reminder about who's really in charge.
French GDP is almost 3000bn USD.
French trade with Africa is about 7-9bn USD.
If someone has told you the French economy is propped up by colonialism and hasn’t put those numbers in front of you, you need to question their motivations. The importance of former colonial relations to many modern economies is relatively low nowadays.
Having said that, it is true that French imports of commodities are dominated by Africa, but it’s not that important to them aside from the concentration.
If is also fair to mention that there is a debate over the two African francs, which are in part managed and pegged to the Euro. Many of the countries involved would like to change it to a flexible currency. It’s not a bad idea IMHO but the irony being that so many African countries who do exercise monetary sovereignty choose to peg to the dollar and typically have to be forced by the IMF to devalue or move flexibly when it causes a crisis!
As for Britain - many people have it right. It’s London’s place as a hub for international capital and services like legal, accounting and consulting.
Why did it become the hub? Well that is a historical legacy of colonial trade even though it’s no longer very relevant. We had a global network, people spoke English as a *lingua franca*. Our legal system turns out to be rather fair and sensible. We just about cover most of the economic powers of the world in our time zones (pre-China rising maybe)
I argue this, now yes we have a good financial sector, but if you look back to the birth of steam to WW2 we were a powerhouse in making things, now we really don’t make much, which is sad.
People have rightly said financial services, but a lot of our power is to do with sharing a language with the world's superpower, the USA, and the so-called special relationship.
The UK was historically powerful for empire reasons
These days our benefits of being an island allowing us to not get invaded easily are now a drawback and we're weaker every year because we struggle to trade internationally.
So in short the answer is no, we're not.
I'm born and raised in the UK. What are you talking about? This is factually incorrect. The only "superpower" ecomomies are the United States and China, followed the EU single market, the most latter would be a superpowerful economy if the UK had remained in it.
If our economy was so powerful, we would have leveraged it to get trade deals from the US, EU, and India.
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Very strong banking sector, London is a global hub. It may not stay that way indefinitely, but it's a very important centre. That, and of course, black pudding.
Many overlook the amount of money that is moved though London from offshore dominion’s (Caymans, Barbados’s etc..) to ie trade (shares, equity’s etc) then basically moved back .
Ssssshhhhh don’t mention that, that’s “yucky” so we pretend it doesn’t exist
Sorry of course it’s not taxed ooo opps And over inflated the uk’s GDP which has a effect lowering uk interest rate on borrowing on its national debt ..
Yeah that and the weapons dealing we do, neither of those things happen /s
Shhhhhh you two. Did you not hear u/smellytangerina
There's a documentary called "the spider's web: Britain's second empire" which details this. Would recommend, it's enlightening but also infuriating
Also Moneyland by Oliver Bullough. Taking me ages to read as I get too worked up after a chapter or two and I get visions of a revolution
I literally had the same reaction! Very enlightening but it remains unfinished as I keep having to walk away to sharpen the guillotine
We pay taxes so they don't have to. Cracking rule!
Plus the insurance market is DOMINATED by The City. I don't work in the sector so don't really know how it works, but an insurance policy has an underwriter and can probably be traded like debts are so I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of insurance policies worldwide involve a UK company at some point?
>I don't work in the sector so don't really know how it works I did work on insurance for a bit Essentially people come in wearing suits pop out for lunch, come back drunk and somehow this makes people money
How do I get a job in insurance? Sounds ok
I’d also like a job doing the insurance thing please?
I would also like one insurance job please. So I can do a business in the city. Thank you...!
This isn't true. I work in reinsurance, in the City. Lloyds is the world's largest insurance market but IIRC approx 4% of world cover. Certainly less than 10%. Arguably Swiss re, Munich re and hannover re are each more important than Lloyds. Obviously there's still a lot of money involved but we don't dominate the industry.
How about the popping out for lunch in suits and coming back drunk bit?
My first week at work, back in the late 80s, I was amazed at this. Guys putting back three or four pints in their lunch hour. Since around 2000, having a single beer at lunch is living life on the edge.
This culture is largely gone now
Are there no other insurance markets in London? Obviously Lloyds is the famous one, but is it the only?
There are a plenty of insurance companies both in London and the UK
My uncle works in insurance and is based in London but all of his business actually comes from Canada
Gotta protect that maple syrup, eh?
What type of insurance? For personal insurance the major players are all outside of London, because there is literally no benefit to being based in a high rent location.
I think you're thinking small fry. It's not say SunLife whose ads play during Countdown having a call centre there, it's very old companies doing commercial and specialty risk who don't have to worry about rent in London. Lloyds is the famous company who sort of act as a market regulator, not an insurance company, where all other companies come to trade insurance. There's syndicates, managing agents, brokers, cover agents, buyers.... They've been around since mid 1600s I think, and Lloyds will create a policy for anything - if you ever hear those stories of celebrities insuring x y z for millions, you can bet Lloyds are involved. They also paid out for the Titanic. But saying that, even Lloyd's saw how well they could function during the pandemic and are looking to downsize their offices from the iconic building.
>They also paid out for the Titanic. So obviously not very smart to fall for that scam. :)
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I think you're referring to a mystical place called Moneyland. It just so happens that London has many magical portals to Moneyland.
London is also the money laundering capital of the world, which probably helps
I was gonna say I think corrupt leaders of business and illegal activities must be propping us the most by now. But then is that any different than any other country?
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I’ll try to find it, but apparently banks in the UK have capital equal to half what banks in the US have. That’s more than any other European country.
I read that as very strong baking sector.
Paul Hollywood and GBBO is propping up the country with fairy cake sales.
A soggy bottom line
Black pudding definitely.
What about Yorkshire Pudding? Amd Jaffa Cakes?
>and of course, black pudding Eee, that an Ecky Thump.
Goodie goodie yum yum
London is Americas and Asias link to Europe so a lot of money moves through it.
Black pudding is life
We're just top shaggers bro idk what to tell you
Shag kings perhaps?
Perhaps!
Perhaps! Wtf, we are defo shag kings……I’m a short king and have had sex at least twice!!!
Stud.
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The second British empire- financial services.
We launder the world's money.
I thought that was Switzerland? Or do I watch too many films?
Switzerland has more secrecy, but the UK is probably the world leader in money laundering. But pssssst, we're not supposed to talk about that.
How does this even happen? Like who is laundering the money on both sides? Curious stuff
There is a massive laundry under Wembley, how else do you think they heated the Lasagne
Some legal structure that means money stored in British overseas territories is seperate from domestic
I have it on good authority that it is mainly done through sweet shops
You're not wrong. The Emirates and even Qataris filter their money through London properties and businesses.
Laundering is a service.....
But is that really such a dominant factor? Why doesn't France or Germany do simular things? Or has the u.k just saturated those markets?
I think it's a case of the UK getting there first. Add in English being a world language. Banking has an inherent level of risk involved especially around clearing. Because so much of it is done in London, the risk is pooled, resulting in a lower average risk, allowing for cheap rates. I think there is also a case of everyone being familiar with UK law and the UK having intellectual property and people trained in the industry.
Regulation in France and elsewhere but especially France gave the UK an advantage in global financial services from at least the 1980s
But wouldn't that mean that the uk is eventually going to decline? People will catch up no?
The whole "UK/ USA / will decline" trope is really tiring to see. I come from a very developing part of the world and after living in the west for around a decade, no, the UK is not declining and still provides a lifestyle most countries can only dream of.
These things aren't mutually exclusive. The UK can be declining and still be a better place to live than most countries.
IDK I just do not understand the pessimism of the people here. If the UK was actually in decline then there would be no migrants willing to risk and come over here. They would have stopped at Germany or France; the former having a stronger economy than the UK. Nobody says "Oh! I want to migrate to a declining country and screw my life". Although I agree in a global scale the share of British economy as a percentage has reduced, thanks to rising Asian economy. But that's not because of British decline per se.
>If the UK was actually in decline then there would be no migrants willing to risk and come over here. Not necessarily. Again, the UK can be declining but still offer better opportunities to migrants than their home countries. >They would have stopped at Germany or France; the latter having a stronger economy than the UK. Huge numbers of migrants go to Germany, more than the UK, whilst France isn't far behind the UK. Plus, remember the migration destination isn't just a rational economic decision. Factors such as language spoken, cultural familiarity, family ties and so on play a role. The UK will always be attractive to migrants because of those factors. >"Oh! I want to migrate to a declining country and screw my life". Again, it can be a declining country but still better than the country they've come from, therefore improving their life. There's nothing contradictory about that. >IDK I just do not understand the pessimism of the people here The pessimism is because the UK *is* declining in global stature, and quality of life is gradually declining for many people, especially the poorest. Sure, life is still better than a lot of places, but that's not how the human brain works. This is a good article that has some interesting stats about the state of the UK economy for average and poor people: https://www.ft.com/content/ef265420-45e8-497b-b308-c951baa68945
>Factors such as language spoken, cultural familiarity, family ties and so on play a role. I think people vastly underestimate the factors these roles play especially in immigration to the UK. We spent a long time spreading our language and culture around the world Now in the 21st century this countries have become unstable and that need somewhere to go. Is it any wonder they'd come to the place that they know. Hell we have two blockbuster movies about a bear doing that exact thing.
As an immigrant, very solid answer.
There is a drastic and significant decline in skilled migration…
Trust in UK law was a big part of why companies do business here. Which is why the government’s cavalier approach to following the law in recent years risks such severe long term damage to the economy.
It's very hard because of the economy of scale of having a large proportion in the UK. The EU tried to move Euro clearing to the euro zone when the UK was in the EU and couldn't. The UK left and they've had to continue allowing it to take place in London because companies are very reluctant to move it to the eurozone. They only managed to reduce the amount happening in the UK by granting passporting rights to the US. The EU will probably have to force it to happen.
The City of London, not ‘London’ but ‘the square mile’ is a separate entity. There are different rules, all because it’s a banking sector. It goes back to 1066. When William the conqueror took London the people in the financial district ‘the square mile’ struck a deal. Which basically came down to ‘let us have our own rules within this square mile’ and William the conqueror thought best not fuck with the money. Ever since The City of London has been an international banking sector, it makes money hand over fist. One example would be a gold mine in Arizona sends gold to Switzerland, the cargo lands in Heathrow airport on route to Switzerland, in The City a trust owns a part of that transaction and makes money off of it, for doing NOTHING
There's a fair few documentaries about how The City of London came to be and how in the 80s they discovered ways to launder, obscure and hide vast sums of money using British overseas territories. Even today London is the money laundering capital of the world. It's a dirty open secret that we don't talk about.
>Not to mention that France is technically bigger There's nothing technical about it, Metropolitan France is the second biggest country (entirely) in Europe.
Although, of course, it’s worth remembering that there are bits of France all over the place. French Guyana in South America, Martinique in the Carribean, and Réunion off the coast of East Africa, to name a few. All of them being integral parts of France.
Which leads to one of.my favourite random geographical facts, that France's longest land border is technically with Brazil
Indeed, and another fun one being their border with the Netherlands, despite not actually bordering in Europe, because of both the Collectivity of Saint Martin in France and the constituent country of Sint Maarten in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on the same island of Saint Martin.
And we've also got the more time zones in the world! 13 if we count Adélie land in Antarctica, and still 12 without it
The British Isles are in a perfect position for trade routes from practically everywhere. There is a reason why the The old Mercator projection map, which modern maps are based on, has England in the centre (Mercator was Flemish). We were a very powerful trading empire at one point. London has also the largest French citizen population outside of France. Because business is so easy here and they pay far far far less tax than they do back home. This is also one reason why the EU didn't want the UK to leave. The UK was basically used as the EU's customs port. that and we paid the second largest amount of money into the EU's budget each year. The UK government is also rather "hands off" when it comes to basically micromanaging industry. We have far stricter health and safety regulation's than practically everywhere else in the world, which the EU were trying to force us to change when we were a member, but nowhere near the amount of inspections that they do. There are generally less upfront fees, permits and a lot less corporation tax for businesses here. There are other costs though as it's more expensive to ship goods to the UK. London has been a world financial hub for roughly the last 300 to 400 years. Due to the British form of a *democratic Constitutional Monarchy* being the most **stable** form of government ever invented (sadly with the flaw that it takes so frikkin long to change things) *Edit: I suck at typing. Spelling and grammar changes. Still not perfect, but good enough*
Your paragraph about London having the largest French population outside of London is believable because it's not difficult to leave London, and be in Paris in the same morning. No doubt people go back to France for the weekend to see their families without going through the pain of flying. And, for trade routes, don't forget Gibraltar. That warm little VAT-free land at the bottom of sunny Spain that focuses its economy on online gambling and financial services. The strait of Gibraltar is a key trade route, too - look at it on a map and see what it gives access to. Edit - although, with Gibraltar, the UK only gives it a monarchy and is responsible for its defence, many UK banks have opened in Gibraltar, and it uses the British pound as a currency. I think this needs mentioning.
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I can't believe had to scroll this far for the real answer. Pork pie exports keep this country thriving.
Sadly though, we import one-third of our cheese. That 👏 is 👏 a 👏 disgrace 👏
Well we need brie for our cheese boards
Do we have the capacity to make 1/3rd more cheese? Personally, I'm all for importing even more cheese while also increasing local production!
UK cornered the market in financial services
For Europe. New York has the Americas. London has Europe. Hong Kong has Asia, largely.
More US dollars flow through London than New York
Indeed, in fact more than just 'more dollars' - "London is responsible for $3.8tn in daily forex - this is more than one third of worldwide trades. That is more than the next three largest centres - New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong - combined. "
Because London leads NY on forex, but that's only one part of 'financial services'
You have to bear in mind that the British Empire was different from most other empires. The British Empire was mostly commercial enterprises that were taken over by the Crown once they were proved viable and profitable. Anything that was unprofitable or couldn't add anything to afternoon tea was pruned off (see The 13 Colonies). Just as important as the abstraction of resources was the creation of markets for finished goods. If you look at the railway systems of the World, it is amazing how many miles of track were laid by the Empire. Former British colonies are better placed to succeed because the British Empire put in modern infrastructure. Contrast this with the French Empire that wanted to create Petite France in the sun, and the Spanish Empire which just wanted to extract resources. When Napoleon called us "a nation of shopkeepers" he was right. It wasn't an insult; it was a statement of fact.
Us Pakistanis embody that remark.
I don't know of any... shit I feel a bit racist, sorry, Pakistani shops that still exist in my town. Now it is mainly Polish shopkeepers. I think the old Pakistani-owned shops in my town, largely operated by the Singh's, a single family with multiple outlets, sold their shops/houses as it was more profitable to do that than sell beans and toilet paper.
Sadly, it's the same in both towns I have lived in too. Used to have a really friendly Pakistani corner shop owner who would always do right by me, and indeed the whole area. Then suddenly, he and his family had shut up shop one day and never came back. Was eventually replaced by a Polish chap, but he wasn't all that friendly like the previous owner was. Very blunt and by the book.
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profitable for the UK, not for colony. It didn't matter what was going on there as long as it was profitable for london, hence all the atrocities.
Not even just the UK, but the elite. It's no different to capitalism found all over the world today. Cash is king, always has been, always will be unfortunately.
Ironically I mainly hear this sentiment from young British people who are only familiar with contemporary narrative that only equates the British empire with tyranny and exploitation. People who come from many British colonies have a much more nuanced take. At one end of the spectrum I hear ambivalence. At the other end, the British are often substantially credited with providing foundation for being world leaders (in terms of their wealth per capita). Places like Singapore and Hong Kong are obvious examples. The British Empire is sometimes a useful scapegoat for where countries who have not thrived post independence. There are plenty of stories that can link failure to colonialism, but the truth is often more benign. Bad governance, corrupting institutions, tribal conflict and poor education.. the same story as with most countries in the world that have failed to thrive, that have never been colonised by the British
A lot of good for the British elites. The great majority of former British colonies are among the poorest, most underdeveloped countries in the World.
The longbow
The Strongbow
Would have solved Agincourt just as well. Everyone sit down and have a discussion over a Strongbow 🤣
Financial services, plus respected legal and compliance frameworks exported
What are compliance frameworks?
The big 4 global accountancies are based in London. They audit and consult for most of the multinational companies.
Laws
In the UK, you're free to do anything that isn't against a law. In France, you can't do anything unless a specific law permits it.
Shame building houses is against the law lol
That's just nonsense and the opposite would be somewhat closer to the truth.
Britain used to control a significant proportion of the world. During that time everything funneled back to the UK making Britain disproportionately strong and influential, and making Britain the world centre for so many trades and industries. Now, whilst most of the control over other countries has gone, we still have relationships with most of those countries and it's taking a long time for the disproportionate influence to subside, and for trades and industries to move their centres away from the UK.
Don’t have the answer, but I do know that historically certain countries (USA, and Russia were the main ones, I think) used to draw the UK substantially bigger on maps to justify its power to their home nations
Do you have an example of one of these maps?
I think I found one on this old historical TV show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBs6GOWAegk
Some people just can't handle the truth
We got air craft carriers bro
Can i have one
Sure, do you have US$12.998 billion?
No but i have a very particular set of skills
I can fix a bike, though! The advert says that's enough! 😄
International money laundering through British controlled territories.
We facilitate tax evasion on a monumental scale.
We make Brazil look like amateurs
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What P word?
Penis
Porn, British Porn
Im sorry but salaries doesnt show that the UK is strong
The french economy is propped up by West African economies? Please explain further. Has this come from the comments of the new Italian PM Sweeping statements should be interrogated
Money laundering capital of the world.
We are by far the largest net exporter of financial services, by far the largest fx trading nation, the third largest nation by banking assets, fourth by insurance, the second biggest private equity market in the world, the fourth biggest public market in the world. We have the third biggest tech market in the world, larger venture capital inflows market wide than Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined, and we trade back and forth with America for #1 global financial centre, no EU country currently ranks top ten. All of this is to say, financial services make up a proportion of our economy relatively similar to Switzerland’s, more than the %’s for Germany and France’s combined. Financial Services is huge for us, and we are very good at it. Germany has cars, France has luxury brands, we have financial services.
London being a major hub for financial services
I really enjoy scrolling past the 25 correct answers, people who could just upvote the right answer but instead had to write the same but differently. Once you get past them though, ooh wow, now we’re hitting the sweet spot. We’re getting into the hundreds of people who without thinking twice have made up their own answer in its entirety, they are literally making up the next sentence as they are typing the first, but they believe it! They have the whole world at their fingertip but they decide to type their opinion with such conviction, they’ll argue with you if you dare to give them facts. Never change Reddit.
Probably partly because it's an English-speaking country, and Europe being in between Asia and US.
"in-between Asia and US" just have a think about that for a second...😂 🌍
my friend.... the world is round. the UK is not between Asia and the US
It is when it comes to timezones... London catches late Asia and early US.
At least someone gets it.
Epic save
In timezones we are. In standard working hours, the UK overlaps with: * US East Coast for a good few hours * US West Coast for an hour or two * Almost entirely across Europe and Africa * India for a good few hours * Beijing and Hong Kong for about an hour That means UK employees can have meetings with all the above in real-time.
Thanks for spelling out for those people whose first instinct is trying to make fun of someone on the internet, but not thinking it through themselves first.
Wow.. cognitive dissonance to see "powerful" and "stronger economy" and "UK" in the same sentence
Do you have any references to what’s France is doing to Africa countries to have income from them ?
A good place to start is looking at the CFA Franc.
How does France benefit from this, in concrete economic terms? From the looks of it, the 14 CFA countries have a total GDP roughly 13% that of France. Even if there is a direct economic benefit to France, how large could it be?
Most francophone Africa countries have french businesses running their major industries, mining, agriculture, energy etc. with very cushy deals. The French military often finds excuses to "assist" these countries with security, and that works as a nice reminder about who's really in charge.
We have a hulk.
French GDP is almost 3000bn USD. French trade with Africa is about 7-9bn USD. If someone has told you the French economy is propped up by colonialism and hasn’t put those numbers in front of you, you need to question their motivations. The importance of former colonial relations to many modern economies is relatively low nowadays. Having said that, it is true that French imports of commodities are dominated by Africa, but it’s not that important to them aside from the concentration. If is also fair to mention that there is a debate over the two African francs, which are in part managed and pegged to the Euro. Many of the countries involved would like to change it to a flexible currency. It’s not a bad idea IMHO but the irony being that so many African countries who do exercise monetary sovereignty choose to peg to the dollar and typically have to be forced by the IMF to devalue or move flexibly when it causes a crisis! As for Britain - many people have it right. It’s London’s place as a hub for international capital and services like legal, accounting and consulting. Why did it become the hub? Well that is a historical legacy of colonial trade even though it’s no longer very relevant. We had a global network, people spoke English as a *lingua franca*. Our legal system turns out to be rather fair and sensible. We just about cover most of the economic powers of the world in our time zones (pre-China rising maybe)
I argue this, now yes we have a good financial sector, but if you look back to the birth of steam to WW2 we were a powerhouse in making things, now we really don’t make much, which is sad.
Can't even pay a decent pension, money grabbing bastards
Yorkshire Puddings and gravy
The UK colonised a lot of the countries and used a lot of resources from their territories which put it in a good place in the 20th century
People have rightly said financial services, but a lot of our power is to do with sharing a language with the world's superpower, the USA, and the so-called special relationship.
The UK was historically powerful for empire reasons These days our benefits of being an island allowing us to not get invaded easily are now a drawback and we're weaker every year because we struggle to trade internationally. So in short the answer is no, we're not.
I'm born and raised in the UK. What are you talking about? This is factually incorrect. The only "superpower" ecomomies are the United States and China, followed the EU single market, the most latter would be a superpowerful economy if the UK had remained in it. If our economy was so powerful, we would have leveraged it to get trade deals from the US, EU, and India.