Do we take globalisation for granted?
The British Empire was largely built on trade and trade made Britain a more prosperous and richer place . The importing of raw goods and the exporting of manufactured goods ensured that our standard of living increased decade after decade, often at the expense of other countries. Other countries duly followed our example and began to trade globally building alliances and linking their economies with their neighbours. The middle to late 20th Century saw the creation of the EEC (later to become the EU), the creation of the World Bank, the creation of the WTO and numerous other trade agreements between the different powers. The result is that at the beginning of the 21st Century our world is more interlinked economically than ever before. This has brought benefits and drawbacks. For example, the 2008 economic crash was caused by mortgage lenders in the USA, lending moneyto people who could not afford to repay it. The effect of this was to almost bankrupt several major economies aroun