Economic Background For most of the past two centuries, the United Kingdom has been a standard-bearer for free trade. Given its history, this is hardly surprising: The country was once home to the Industrial Revolution and commanded an empire that spanned a quarter of the globe. Armed with the military force to assert and protect its wide reach and competitive economy, the United Kingdom forcefully persuaded other countries to open up their markets to trade, laying the groundwork for today's global exchange of imports and exports. Now, seven decades after World War II brought the British Empire to an end, the United Kingdom's mighty manufacturing industry and international clout are shadows of what they once were. Yet much of the promise that the British economy boasted in its heyday persists to this day. The United Kingdom built its economic power on a base of manufacturing.