(^560) NOTES
- Cf. Tomlinson, "Inventing 'Decline' "; also Supple, "Fear of Failing," pp. 442-4:3.
- Supple, p. 444, speaks of "disturbing psychological and political repercussions."
- Supple, p. 444, n. 9, citing W. A. P. Manser, Britain in the Balance (1971), p. 179.
- Cf. Clapham, Economic History, II, 113, writing in gloomy 1932 of the trade cri-
sis of 1885: "The mechanical and industrial movement has become once for all inter-
national, and there is very little echelon in the advance.... Engines are toiling
indifferently for all. Mechanical or scientific industrial monopolies are short lived."
Clapham did not know the word "convergence," but he understood the phenomenon.
Also ibid., Ill, 122: "Half a continent is likely in course of time to raise more coal and
make more steel than a small island. ..." How are the mighty fallen! - On the good fortune of being among the rich, Clapham, ibid., Ill, 554; Mc-
Closkey, If You're So Smart, p. 48; Supple, "Fear of Failing," p. 443: "... the differ-
ences between Britain and other advanced societies are much less (and much less
important) than the differences between the advanced and less developed countries."
McCloskey actually waxes indignant that people so fortunate should complain that
they are losing ground to other rich people: "at best tasteless in a world of real
tragedies ... ; at worst... immoral self-involvement, nationalist guff. ..." That's the
trouble with people: they think first of Number One. They also think that being first
is better than being second or fourteenth. - Cited in Burn, Age of Equipoise, p. 64.
- W. S. Jevons, Methods of Social Reform (London: Macmillan, 1883), pp. 181-82,
cited in Supple, "Official Economic Inquiry," p. 325. - Here is McCloskey, offering compatriots cold comfort: "Americans are better off
when Japan 'defeats' them at car-making, because then they will do something they are
comparatively good at—banking, say, or growing soybeans—and let the Japanese do
the car making or the consumer electronics." McCloskey, "1066 and a Wave of Gad-
gets," in McCloskey and Dormois, eds., "British Industrial 'Decline,' " p. 21. - McCloskey, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2d ser., 3 (1970).
- Cf. Wilson, British Business History, pp. 90-93. One would have expected these
ambivalent distributors to sort things out and focus on the more profitable brands. Or
the manufacturers to set up their own sales and service networks, as occurred in the
United States and later on in Japan. - Peter H. Lindert and Keith Trace in McCloskey, ed., Essays on a Mature Economy,
p. 242. - Wilson, "Economy and Society," pp. 185, 190, cited in Dintenfass, "Converging
Accounts," p. 19. - The quotes are from Dintenfass, "Converging Accounts," p. 22. The optimists
have been equally dismissive of entrepreneurial testimony to poor performance. See
Edgerton, "Science and Technology in British Business History" and Science, Tech-
nology, p. 11. For a pessimistic view based on business histories, Coleman and
MacLeod, "Attitudes to New Techniques."
34. Floud, "Britain," in Floud and McCloskey, eds., "Economic History," 1st éd., II,
- McCloskey, "International Differences in Productivity!^1 " in McCloskey, ed., Essays
on a Mature Economy, pp. 286-87. - Habakkuk, American and British Technology, p. 212.
- Cf. Clapham, Economic History, III, 131.
- Davenport-Hines and Jones, eds., British Business in Asia, p. 21. One could make
similar observations about the British steel manufacture. British makers had every
preference and advantage in the Indian market and yet saw themselves increasingly dis-
placed: £8,000 for Belgian steel in 1885/86 as against £98,000 for the U.K.;
£280,000 for Belgium in 1895/96 as against £274,000 for the U.K.—and this, in spite
of British steel's reputation as superior. Saul, Studies in British Overseas Trade, p. 199.
- McCloskey, "International Differences in Productivity!^1 " in McCloskey, ed., Essays