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Who has "earned" Britan the most money?
I was watching the program on BBC4 about maps and the history of them. It mentioned Captain Cook and how he went round the world finding new land and "claiming" it for Great Britain.
It got me thinking how much his exploits must have "earned" for Great Britain over the centuries (money made from the countries he claimed).
And that got me thinking which individual in history had done the most to make Britain the rich country she is - be it an explorer, inventor, politician, businessman, member of the royal family etc. So who has "earned" the most money for the UK?
And for that matter which person had COST Britain the most money (British or foreign).
It got me thinking how much his exploits must have "earned" for Great Britain over the centuries (money made from the countries he claimed).
And that got me thinking which individual in history had done the most to make Britain the rich country she is - be it an explorer, inventor, politician, businessman, member of the royal family etc. So who has "earned" the most money for the UK?
And for that matter which person had COST Britain the most money (British or foreign).
Answers
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No best answer has yet been selected by VHG. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.>Apart from all the debt, obviously...
Well we do have the debt, but we also have to accept we are one of the richest countries in the world. The USA has trillions of dollars of debt but is still one of the richest countires in the world.
I heard someone a few weeks ago say we were the 5th richest country in the world.
This list has us at number 6 based on GDP
http://www.aneki.com/richest.html
This list has us lower, but still in the top 20
http://en.wikipedia.o..._GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
Well we do have the debt, but we also have to accept we are one of the richest countries in the world. The USA has trillions of dollars of debt but is still one of the richest countires in the world.
I heard someone a few weeks ago say we were the 5th richest country in the world.
This list has us at number 6 based on GDP
http://www.aneki.com/richest.html
This list has us lower, but still in the top 20
http://en.wikipedia.o..._GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
-- answer removed --
I think Richard Arkwright has to be up there on this list. By inventing a spinning machine that did not require humans to 'turn' it, simply to mind it, he invented the factory system. This enabled huge amounts of productivity, and also marks a turning point in the societies it touched - the leaving of traditional agricultural work-patterns, governed by the seasons. It also made a substantial number of factory owners incredibly rich and even in the laissez-faire regime of the 19th century, fed income back into government coffers. No real coincidence that the grandson of one of these early factory owners became prime minister - Robert Peel.
-- answer removed --
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