What to read about the British economy

Relative economic decline is nothing new to Britain. It has been happening since the mid- to late 19th century. As the first country to industrialise in the late 18th century Britain became the richest nation the world had ever seen. Its lead could never last. In the 20th century Britain became the first country to deindustrialise on a large scale. The story of how it achieved primacy, and then lost it, is a fascinating one. What is more, Britain was at the heart of the first great modern age of globalisation before 1914, and was central to the next phase of global economic integration, which began in the 1980s. Many, if not most, of the lessons of British economic history are relevant to the rest of the developed world.