Part II

(a)

The history of the location of the textile industry illustrates the “globality” in global economics. From the reading, it is clear that the textile industry can prosper in numerous environments, countries and even continents. From England to New England and North Carolina to China and Japan, the textile industry has been home to incredible cultural diversity. However, what all of these different environments have in common is the high number of workers who are willing to work long hours for low wages. More than anything, the book has shown that the success of any industry is more dependent on the productivity and willingness of the workers than it is the actual location. 

There are many similarities of the type of workers that brought success to each of the textile industries in England, the US, Japan and China. All three industries took advantage of women’s labor to reap industrial success. In the Southern mills, the book noted that “more than 60 percent of the females working in Southern cotton mills in the early 1900’s were 13 years old of younger” (99). Moreover, they tried more “docile and tractable” women that could easily be taken advantage of. In Japan, the first cotton mill workers “were young women escaping a life of subsistence agriculture in the countryside, driven into the mills by both rural poverty and natural disasters” (102). Ultimately, it appears as if the textile industry has reaped success at the bloodied and nimble fingers of the low-paid workers (a strong majority of them women). However, Rivoli presents an interesting perspective about the textile industry actually providing the women in China with a kind of liberation, which I will address in the next point. 

(b)

It is clear that Industrialization brings both positive and negative consequences, and I think that the Rivoli’s exploration of female liberation in the Chinese textile industry is a perfect representation of this industrial dichotomy. For instance, the negative side of industrialization can be seen in the Chinese hukou system.

“Through the hukou system, China ensured a stable food supply for its cities while at the same time limiting the population of the urban areas. In reality, however, the masses in the countryside were ‘surplus labor,’ an academic term for people with nothing to do, people so ‘surplus’ that their presence had no effects of the output of the commune. And while focusing the masses to remain idle in the countryside, China devoted its resources to the urban population, developing the cities’ housing, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, while leaving the rural population to fend for itself” (106-107).

Although the hukou system has gradually been liberalized, “each rural citizen rolling toward the coast is on a leash,” (107) meaning that while they can visit the city it is not easy to stay, nor is it possible to bring one’s family; only one’s labor. This completely isolates the worker and makes them vulnerable to exploitation. Therefore, not only are these “floating workers” cheaper than urban workers, but “they ‘can bear more hardship’ and are ‘more manageable’” (108-109). Therefore, rural Chinese women who work in these industries endure low pay, long hours and incredibly poor working conditions with bad, incredible noise and curfew regulations (109-110). 

However, interestingly enough, it is this same system that draws numerous rural Chinese women to industrial work in the city in which they find their so called “liberation,” despite all of the hardship and regulation. The Chinese women who come to the city to work find that they are able to dress how they like, marry who they like or not choose to marry at all, and experience life outside the boring rural countryside. The following is a passage about one such Chinese woman, the young and single Chi Ying from Hubei, who has found more freedom in the textile industry despite all of the limitations:

“Though Chi Ying makes seven to eight times as much money at the factory as her father does at home, money is not at the top of her list of reasons for leaving the village for the factory. Chi Ying has delayed marriage and ultimately decided against the husband her parents had chosen for her. With her wages, she repaid the young man for the gifts he had given her parents. In the city she feels modern young and free . . . Chi Ying compares herself to her mother and grandmother, and the striking differences seem to her to be not income but horizons” (113). 

Therefore, although these women face low pay and horrible conditions, they experience much greater personal freedoms than they would in the rural countryside. The question is, do these liberties outweigh their injustices? Can their exploitation be reconciled with their new opportunities? 

(c)

I was very intrigued by Rivoli’s discussion about her involvement on the Licensing Oversight Committee at Georgetown. 

“I clearly remember thinking that the students, however noble and impassioned, just weren’t being reasonable. Names and addresses of all of the factories in this fleet-footed industry with its global supply chain? Unannounced visits by independent monitors? And why would the factories let them in, even assuming we did have names and addresses? And of course we would never get names and addresses, since every company producing the clothing had stated flatly that they would never release this information. I see now that my responses in these early meetings were very close to the response the business community has had to social, environmental, or labor activists since the days of Thomas Percival: How could all of this possibly work? And how could we know we were doing more good than harm?” (128). 

From the reading we found out, however, that the companies did in fact agree to these terms. Yet the text doesn’t go into further discussion about how the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) actually carries out its job. I’m interested in if these companies like Nike do in fact follow through on all that they claim, and if they didn’t, how it is able to be covered up. I guess I’m interested in if the WRC has found any of these companies in violation or how the process is actually executed.

Richard Florida - Globality

Richard Florida sees the effects of globalization from a different viewpoint than Friedman, meaning the world is not flat but rather “spiky.” He argues that the high population density in the cities makes these areas more economically competitive on a global level as large concentrations of people are more likely to harbor creativity and other talents that lead to/promote innovation. He thus argues that not only is the world not flat, but it continues to become even more spiky as time progresses. The world only appears to be flat because social and economic distances seem shorter with use of the internet and modern transportation conveniences. He also argues that globalization is devastating for areas of low population density. He uses China as an example: while Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen are bustling with people and innovation the rural areas of China are home to desperate poverty.


This relates to the central place theory because more densely populated cities are prone to more variety and specialization in terms of medical, retail, food, entertainment and other services. Just as Florida asserts that more innovation is found in these “spiky areas” there is clearly much more innovative services in a regional metropolis than hamlet. Therefore, Florida argues that this dispersion of population and effect of globalization creates a cultural and economic divide.


Aberdeen, Scotland would be considered a regional city; the population is 183,030. Edinburgh would be considered a regional metropolis and Glasgow would be considered a national metropolis. Dundee is a small city and Paisley is a town. Aberdeen has services including an international airport and other common modern conveniences; however, as you increase on the hierarchy, Glasgow and Edinburgh contain more specialized services.

UK Transportation

The geography of the UK is composed of numerous islands, including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland, between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea northwest of France. Therefore, the UK is home to numerous ports. The Felixstowe Port is the UK’s busiest container port in the Suffolk Coastal district on England’s eastern shores. Felixstowe Port is England’s closest port to Rotterdam and the Netherlands’ Europort. Felixstowe Port can accommodate the world’s latest deep-draft post-Panamax container vessels. Other post-Panamax ports in the UK include Southampton along the English Channel, Thamesport on the North Sea which is just 56 kilometers east of London, and Liverpool on the Irish Sea is undergoing planning/preparation for a post-Panamax port.

Other ports include the following:

Teesport, Middlesbrough, North Sea

Port of Tyne, Newcastle, North Sea

Barrow, Irish Sea

Port Talbot, Irish Sea

Milford Haven, Irish Sea

Invergordon, Moray Firth

Hunterston Terminal, Firth of Clyde

Hound point, Firth of Forth

These ports are primarily used for ferry/cruise transportation and commercial services. The United Kingdom Major Ports Group Limited (UKMPG) is a trade association that represents most of the larger commercial ports in the United Kingdom and has nine member who own and operate 41 ports and 2 terminals which account for over 70% of the tonnage handled in UK ports.

The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world, as the world’s first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825. Most of the railway track is managed by the Network Railway. The UK has 16,454 km of railways.

Passenger services in Great Britain are divided into regional franchises and run by private Train Operating Companies. There are 2,516 passenger railway stations on the Network Rail network. This does not include the London Underground and other systems not part of the national network. Most date from the Victorian era and many are located either in or on the edge of town and city centers.

There are four main freight operating companies in the UK, the largest of which is DB Schenker (formerly the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS)). The amount of freight moved in 2010‐11 was 19.23 billion net ton kilometers, a 1.0 % increase from 2009‐10. The total amount of freight moved increased by 14.0% in 2010‐11 Q4 compared to 2009‐10 Q4, with 5.34 billion net ton kilometers moved compared to 4.69 billion net ton kilometers moved in 2009‐10 Q4.

Last year for the first time, consumer rail freight traffic was greater than coal traffic; Despite the recent economic downturn, rail freight volumes grew by 2% between 2006-2011, and over the same period, consumer  rail freight grew by 29%, exceeding previous forecasts  its eighth consecutive year of growth.There is significant suppressed demand for rail freight with forecasts predicting that rail freight overall will have doubled by 2030 with consumer rail freight growing 7.6% per annum during this period. More than £1.5 billion private investment in locomotives, wagons, facilities and systems has taken place since 1995.

The UK has paved roadways totaling 394,428 km, 3,519 km of which are expressways. In the UK, drivers are charged are toll for most expressways and highways, in addition to selected bridges and tunnels. UK roads are split into two main categories, trunk roads and non-trunk roads. Trunk roads are nationally important routes, which are maintained by the national highway authority of each country. All other public roads are maintained by local authorities. Nearly all public roads have been surfaced since the early part of the 20th century, and the country has a good coverage of divided highways and freeways, built from the 1950s onwards. New-build roads are subject to very high design standards, but the quantity of them has been held back by funding, and more recently, a lack of political will. Older roads are generally well maintained and surfaced, but are rarely widened or re-aligned and often their courses have been unchanged for centuries.

The following are a list of international airports in the UK:

Aberdeen, Scotland. ABZ

Belfast City, Northern Ireland. BHD

Belfast International, Northern Ireland. BFS             

Birmingham, England. BHX 

Bristol, England. FZO

Cardiff, Wales. CWL 

Exeter, England. EXT

East Midlands, England.  EMA 

Edinburgh, Scotland. EDI 

Glasgow, Scotland. GLA  

Leeds Bradford, England. LBA

Liverpool, England. LPL

London City, England. LCY   

London Gatwick, England. LGW

London Heathrow, England. HRW

London Luton, England. LTN

London Stanstead, England. STN 

Manchester, England. MAN

Newcastle, England. NCL

Norwich, England. NWI 

Prestwick, Scotland. PIK 

Other airports are either private or used for military purposes. As of 2010, the are 505 airports in the UK, which ranks the UK as number 14 in country comparison to the world. Out of the 505 airports, 306 of them are paved.

Sources:

http://www.freightonrail.org.uk/FactsFigures.htm

http://www.cbrd.co.uk/roadsfaq/

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/GBR_Thamesport_484.php

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/GBR_Felixstowe_Port_242.php

http://www.ports.org.uk/

http://www.ukairportguide.com/

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

1. Identify a selection from this chapter that you found particularly interesting and explain why you selected it.

One of the points that I found most interesting was how easy or efficient 

It can be to smuggle undeclared merchandise, illegal drugs, undocumented immigrants, and terrorist bombs as moving cargo. Of course it’s easy to understand how this is possible, as the chapter described how the average port workers handle around 10,000 loaded containers per workday and a single ship can hold around 3,000 40-foot-long containers, and that even when the doors are opened, it is rare that anything is revealed besides a wall of paperboard cartons. In other words, there really is no sufficient method in which the workers can affirm that the manifest corresponds to what is inside. Clearly this is a significant problem, that needs to be addressed. Obviously the high-efficiency transportation machine is incredibly beneficial and ultimately responsible for international trade and therefore their use needs to be maintained. However, a new advancement and solution will have to be made to avoid this illegal smuggling and dangerous activity, without inspectors and security officials physically inspecting all of the contents of each of the approximately 10,000 containers that they come across each day. 

2. How does the author see the development of the shipping container contributing to globalization?

The author sees the development of the shipping container contributing to globalization because it ultimately enabled international trade. Before the container was in international use, it was much too expensive to trade with far away countries because the transportation costs were so stifling. In 1961, before international container use, ocean freight costs alone accounted for 12 percent of the value of US exports and 10 percent of the value of US imports. In fact, freight costs were said to be even more significant than government barriers like tariffs. The chapter gives the example of a pharmaceutical company paying approximately $2,400 to ship a truck-load of medicines from the U.S. Midwest to an interior city in Europe in 1960. This sum included payments to a dozen different vendors: a local trucker in Chicago, the railroad that carried the truck trailer on a flatcar to New York or Baltimore, a local trucker in the port city, a port warehouse, a steamship company, a warehouse and a trucking company in Europe, an insurer, a European customs service, and the freight forwarder who put all the pieces of this complicated journey together, and that half the total outlay went for port costs. 

However, the container made transportation much easier and cost effective as it brought incredible reductions in the cost of moving freight. Therefore, countries who previously before could not even imagine selling their products abroad because of the transportation expenses were now able to do so. No longer can companies only deliver products to nearby foreign neighbors, but they can afford to ship their products half-way across the globe and further. This highly globalized method of product transportation helped spur innovation as companies were now competing with global competitors and had to find new ways to make their products better, more efficient and ultimately stand out to the customer. So many of our every-day products come from far away countries like China and is thus hard to imagine going without them. For, without the container, while trade with countries like Japan or China would not have necessarily been impossible, it would have been much more expensive and had a very limiting effect on companies that participated in trade and the products they traded. 

3. What short run impact did this innovation have on National Income and employment? What would the long-run impact be? Explain.

In the short-run, National Income would be positively affected by containers. Using the equation Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + (Exports-Imports), consumption would increase as consumers would have a wider variety of goods and services to purchase at lower prices because of the increased levels of competition. Moreover, because companies saved money on transportation costs, they would have more money to potentially invest in their company and other ventures which would also drive the GDP up. It is clear that this innovation would greatly increase exports but it would also increase imports so this particular part of the equation is not clear as to how it would affect National Income as it is dependent on the actual amount of exports and imports. In the short-run, the container certainly eliminated jobs, but it also created jobs as well.

In the long run, national income of countries throughout the world has increased as international trade has enabled richer countries to invest in these poorer countries through their labor and emerging economies. Ultimately, as stated in the text, containers have increased the ready availability of inexpensive imported consumer goods, thus boosting living standards around the world. Thus, in the long-run employment has been positively affected as may jobs have been created through the opportunities of international trade. However, this also comes with a price: “low shipping costs helped make capital even more mobile, increasing the bargaining power of employers against their fare less mobile workers.” Therefore, it is much more difficult now for workers and trade union to negotiate for improvements in wages and benefits.

Rivoli Part I

1. The markets that Rivoli discusses differ from an idealized, pure market theory in that these markets are not based solely on market supply and market demand. Rather, we have read about numerous types of government involvement that seeks to regulate the market in order to protect the American cotton farmers. In chapter four especially, Rivoli reveals the extent of government protection and how it differs in other countries. In the United States, for instance, the Farm Bill of 2002 brought the cotton farmer’s income up to a minimum of 72.24 cents per pound even though the world price of cotton for the span of years from 2002-2007 was only between 44 and 61 cents. More examples of government protection of cotton farmers in the US is the Crop Disaster Program and Farm Loan Program. Historically throughout the United States’ cotton farming there has been a pattern of diverging from an ideal market economy: plantation slavery, sharecropping, Bracero workers and subsidies. The US government has aided in the suppression of the labor market in the cotton industry to such an extent that Rivoli claims the market is completely absent when it comes to cotton. I think the damaging effects of this aid is best described and summed up in the following excerpt at the end of chapter four: “In US cotton farming, because of the variety of protections in place, disasters happen to cotton but not to people. Nelson Reinsch wasn’t happy to lose his cotton, but he did not lose sleep and he did not miss a meal. . . .  A short time before Nelson Reinsch lost his cotton crop, more than 500 cotton farmers in the Andra Pradesh region of India committed suicide as worms ate the last of their cotton” (73). 
2. From Part I, we have read about many different circumstances of culture interacting with economics. However, one of the most interesting circumstances that stood out to me was how the social culture of West Texas affected the business atmosphere of the cotton industry. For instance, Rivoli notes on page 58 that cotton buyers everywhere preferred west Texan cotton farmers because they were found to be “unfailingly gracious and brimming with hospitality” (58). The friendly and warm culture of Texas improved business relations and made quite the positive difference to the textile mills that cotton farmers worked with. The personal sentiments that the West Texan farmers were able to embed within their business associates added to a greater sense of trust in their cotton. However, the culture of West Texas was certainly not the only reason for textile mill’s preferring their cotton over competitors. Rivoli also mentions the benefits of the USDA classing system. Nevertheless, this is still an example of how the culture/social manner specific to West Texas interacts with economics. 
3. I was very surprised to read about the booming cotton industry in the United States. However, I was more surprised at the great lengths that the government goes to protect the industry and its famers, even in comparison to other type of agricultural industries. For instance, Rivoli states: “Thanks largely to the generous government payments, average annual household income for cotton farmer was $142,463 in 2003 -- approximately double that of non-cotton farmers” (60). I was unaware that farmers made such a significant income and that if varied so widely between industries. 

Rural Scotland facing ‘astonishing poverty’, youth unemployment expert warns

This article reveals the high levels of poverty and youth unemployment in rural Scotland.  There are very few job opportunities in the area, and as a result, official figures in March revealed that 103,000 people aged between 16 and 24 are out of work in Scotland. Due to the high levels of unemployment, the rural areas are in severe poverty. 

Unemployment and poverty are two economic issues that are very telling of a nation’s current economic state.The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force. Unemployment is a gauge of joblessness and thus representative of the economy’s growth rate. Poverty, moreover, is defined as the lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. This includes not having enough to clothe or feed a family, not having proper education or medical attention, etc. Some of the economic costs of poverty include a reduced productivity and economic output, increased costs of crime and increased health expenditures.

The resolution I suggest, which they briefly touch upon in the article, is to bring more economic activity to the rural areas. The article states that job opportunities really only exist in the inner cities, especially with the large focus on the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Therefore, as the article states, the government needs to steer companies into those areas. There are already existing rural colleges, including Queen Margaret University and Highlands and Islands University. Therefore, these two universities should be better advertised/promoted to bring more students to the universities, and in turn create more of an incentive for companies to build up the area. Due to the significant number of young people unemployed, the companies that are geared toward the rural areas need to be aimed at employing the younger population. I think that building up these rural areas into university towns will be very beneficial to youth employment. This in turn will create more jobs and help improve the means to surpass poverty. 

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/301855-rural-scotland-facing-astonishing-poverty-youth-unemployment-expert-warns/

Social Responsibility

The major themes and objectives of Milton Friedman’s “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” is pretty self evident given the title. Milton does not believe that a business has a social responsibility for only individuals can have responsibilities. He makes the distinction between the corporate executive acting on principal and the corporate executive acting on agency. The very simple distinction comes down to whose money he/she is spending. For instance, a corporate executive may devote part of his income to charities or organizations he supports. In this case, he is acting as principal and spending his own time and money. However, when a corporate executive refrains from following his employer’s directions/interests in justification of a “greater social good” then the corporate executive is acting as agent. It is this particular agency that Friedman is opposed to. In his opinion, the exact meaning of a corporate executive who has a social responsibility is a corporate executive who fails to act in the best interest of his employer; the corporate executive who acts more like a public servant than a well-paid executive. 

Friedman further goes on to highlight the behavior of some corporations to use “social responsibility” as way to rationalize results that benefit their company. In other words, Friedman does not see “social responsibility” to belong in business. He states: “the doctrine of ‘social responsibility’ taken seriously would extend the scope of the political mechanism to every human activity.” Thus, in order to safeguard the personal liberties, one can revert back to the title: the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits in a manner that does not involve fraud or deception.

Individualism - Friedman believes that businesses acting in their own best interest, to make profits, will be ultimately beneficial for all. He argues against collectivism and sees  “social responsibility” as a subversive doctrine because it seems to imply that “collectivist ends can be attained without collectivist means” which he doesn’t find to be true.  A business “looking out for the needs of society” will not necessarily lead to benefiting this society. Moreover, he says that in taking this theory seriously, it will cause  the government to be so actively controlled that political mechanism will monitor every human activity. 

Monochronic Time: Friedman sees time as a precious commodity, at least time in regard to business. He acknowledges that what a corporate does on his/her own time is his/her prerogative. However, while under the pay the clock, their attention should be focused on working in the best interest of their employer, not “society.’ 

Directness: Friedman detests businesses who communicate their business aims in cloaked truth. For example, those businesses that try to restore faith in corporate America by crediting social responsibility for their business motives when in all actuality it’s for their profitability. Clearly, Friedman believes direct communication with the public is best.

I think there is a conflict between business and social responsibility; however, I do not think it is as black and white as Friedman makes it out to be. I lean toward Adam Smith’s philosophy that company’s acting in their own self interest will end up being better for the economy and the consumer, as one can expect more competition and as a result higher quality and innovation. Yet there are obvious holes in this theory. Businesses, feeling the pressure to compete with other companies, may find ways to save money by not properly disposing of their waste, which is not beneficial for society. 

Clearly, my thought process is rather scattered in trying to form an opinion. I suppose I’m torn. I do believe that businesses need to act in their own self interest and maximize profits; these factors are dependent on their own survival and do have greater benefit on society as a whole. However, I also think that businesses have a social responsibility to give back to the community and instill public change. I look to corporations like Pepsi who take on projects to help communities/causes around the country. I think that when a company is so public and successful, it has a duty to do something positive. I suppose this goes back to Friedman’s concept that this “good” that the company does is only because it will positively reflect their company, and in return their profit margins potentially. While this may be true, it is certainly not always true.

Shweder's Lecture

In his lecture, Shweder presented three prophesies about the shape of the emerging world order. The first prophecy consists of the notion that "West is best," or the Washington Consensus. In other words, the superiority of Western capitalism and society will lead to the universalization of liberal democracy as the unifying factor of political order. The second prophecy suggests a world of robust cultural pluralism. Meaning that there will be a return of an ideologically divided world in which ethno-national states will compete. While they will compete with one another in the process of globalization, they will remain their own separateness and uniqueness. The final prophecy is what Shweder himself believes to be the most plausible. He suggests that we will have a return of global empire like that of the better feature of the Ottoman Empire: weak central state that only controls political/economic necessities like taxes, more local control, no standard family life, unique cultures and multiple groups/races/religions of people.

I think the most important indicator that would help predict the direction of global change is the variance in American or Western assumed superiority. Clearly, the Washington Consensus is still very much alive and is thriving, given his examples of speeches given at World Bank meetings. Moreover, he shared an experience of his in India that credits British colonial efforts, for without them, the man said "India would still be a land of barbarians." It is for this reason that I find the idea of the third prophecy to be very unlikely. I cannot see American society conforming to such a way of life in which American control and dominance cannot be exerted. Other indicators of global change include technology, trade relations and warfare. 

Culture is incredibly important in shaping economic outcomes. Shweder talked about a trade-off between inequality and diversity and used the ethnically cleansed European countries of Belgium and Switzerland as an example. He spoke of a rush toward income equality will lead to a decrease in diversity and that it is utopian to think that a country can have both at high qualities. This concept is very interesting to consider. It seems as though the universalization or watering down of culture could lead to more beneficial outcomes like income equality as seen in such European countries. Culture ultimately effects one's thought processes and thus how one views the world and participates in the economy. In regard to conducting international business, for instance, one's culture can be very limiting when trying to expand in to international markets of different cultures if you cannot incorporate other cultures/adapt to cultural changes. For instance, American expansion into Japanese markets can be very difficult simply because the cultures differ so greatly. Japan values collectivism over American individualism which will affect marketing techniques. Different personal/relationship values will also affect how the American market interacts with the Japanese consumers/investors. I think that this is the direction Shweder's lecture was going in. Culture should not be placed on a hierarchy: American way of life and their economic practices are not inherently superior. 

UK: Resources, International Trade and National Income Accounts

• Resources - Natural resources, labor and capital reflects what a nation can produce, or its potential productive capacity.  This is reflected in national income; however, a nation is not always functioning at its potential, which is why the actual number of national income is also measured.

Natural resources of the UK include coal, oil, natural gas, petroleum and iron ore, which form the backbone of the country’s industry of auto production, steel manufacturing and ship building. Other resources include: zinc, lead, gold, tin, limestone, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum and silica. The climate of the UK is mild with rainfall throughout the year. Winters are mild and wet and the summers are the warmest in the south. The Gulf Stream crosses the Atlantic Ocean and warms the country, making the winters milder than other European countries. Fishing is profitable along the shores of the UK and nearly 25% of the country has arable land. 

Natural resources are being used up and industry is changing to cleaner forms of energy. Therefore, many people who once had jobs in mining and manufacturing are being restrained for jobs in service industries. Of the approximately 31 million workers in the UK (2011 est.) 80% of the people work in service industries (tourism, health care, education, banking & insurance), 18% in industry and 1% in agriculture. Gross fixed capital formation 44,696 euros.

• International Trade - The UK’s location makes it ideal for trade as France is across the English Channel, the Republic of Ireland is to the west and the Scandinavian Peninsula. Moreover, its location on the Atlantic Ocean helps its trade with the U.S.

In 2011, the UK exported $495.4 billion in goods. Export commodities include manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals, food, beverages and tobacco. It’s export partners include the U.S. (11.4%), Germany (11.2%), Netherlands (8.5%), France (7.7%), Ireland (6.8%) and Belgium (5.4%). In the same year, the UK imported $694.9 of goods. The import commodities include manufactured goods, machinery, fuels and foodstuffs. The import partners are: Germany (13.1%); China (9.1%); Netherlands (7.5%); France (6.1%); US (5.8%); Norway (5.5%); and Belgium (4.9%). The exchange rate, British pounds per US dollar, is .6176. 

• National Income Accounts - The income, expenditure and output measures of GDP are produced as part of the UK National Accounts. They measure the total income of all economic agents in the UK along with their expenditure and values and volumes of output (or production). 

The four quarter sum of consumer spending for 2011 is $11.7 trillion. The gross fixed investment in 2011 was estimated to be 14.4% of GDP. Investment reflects total business spending on fixed assets, like factories, machinery, equipment, dwellings, and inventories of raw materials, which provide the basis for future production. Thus, the UK’s investment spending ranks it at 167 in comparison to other world nations and the percentage of investment spending compared to the nation’s overall GDP. The 2011 government spending is estimated at $921.7 billion. This includes money for pensions, health care, education, defense, welfare, protection, transport, and general/other spending, as well as interest. 

Sources: 

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_year2011_0.html

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3846.htm

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/economy/national-accounts/national-income--expenditure-and-output

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html