I Have A Referat Tomorrow

I'm so nervous... Speaking English to a bunch of Germans and not sure whether they understand me, sounds quite bad sia...

Our topic and discussion questions

Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Boom und Niedergang?

1. An welchen Sektoren der Wirtschaft kann man einen Aufschwung ausmachen und welche Verschiebungen gab es?

2. Mit welchen Problemen hatte die Wirtschaft in Großbritannien ab den 1880er Jahren zu kämpfen und wozu führten diese?

3. Inwieweit ist der Verlust der herausragenden wirtschaftlichen Stellung Großbritanniens den Unternehmern und Industriellen anzulasten?

4. Wo liegen die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen den Argumenten von Weiner und Rubenstein?

5. Kann man von einem Niedergang der Britischen Wirtschaft auch in Hinblick auf die Entwicklung in den USA und Deutschland sprechen?

My part

Wo liegen die Gemeinsamheiten und die Unterschieden zwischen den Argumenten von Weiner und Rubenstein?

Gemeinsamheiten
- both agreed that economic decline was relative
- cultural factor affecting the British economy

Unterschieden
- the cultural factor
o Weiner
 decline was due to cultural reasons
• the failure of social and mental structure of Victorian Great Britain
• the failure of entrepreneurs
• snobbery
o Rubenstein
 economic decline was not due to cultural reasons but economic reasons arising from cultural factors
• spending on old technology
• overseas British investment
• Men of Substance becoming rentiers
• family firm ethos instead of corporate structuring
• old boy network

Other reasons for comparative British economic decline
- comparison with the United States of America and Germany
o incredible economic growth of the latter two countries
 USA recovering from the Civil War
 unification of Germany
 Britain unable to respond
• growth slowed
o technical schools
 British education system placed greater emphasis on the classics rather than vocational training
o labour factor
 America lacked skilled labour, hence the need of technological development
 Britain had an abundance of skilled labour, hence the continued usage
o American entrepreneurship and inventions
o new industries of scale
 British unable to keep up with these changes
- British investment overseas
o did not need to rely on economic growth at home
- British free trade overseas
- did not need to rely on domestic agriculture
- management failure
o failure to keep up with modern developments
o mistaken investment strategies
- rise of protectionism with the onset of the First World War

Kann man von einem Niedergang der britischen Wirtschaft sprechen?
- If decline was relative, yes, but if decline is measured by absolute terms, no.
o relative decline
 American and German economies have surpassed that of the British
 but „British economy was still far stronger in absolute terms than 50 years earlier“

I will be needing to fix up my speech a bit more and hopefully things will go all right~