This great little video from the FT on the Business blog looks at the decline of the UK steel industry, which supplied 67% of the world's steel in the industrial revolution, and now contributes less than 1%.
The data included in it shows not only the decline in output and employment of the industry, but can be used to trace:
the increase in labour productivity over the last twenty years, resulting from significant investment;
the potential impact of fiscal policy (which can also be linked to announcements around carbon trading and energy taxation in last week's budget);
the importance of inward investment in the capital account of the Balance of Payments, as all three of the remaining biggest steel producers in the UK belong to overseas owners.
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