 that have always been the true backbone of Britain's economy. Even in this age of multinationals they account for 99.9 per cent of the business population (5.5 million businesses), three fifths of all employment (16.3 million) and around half of turnover in the UK private sector (£2.3 trillion or 52 per cent). So why on earth is the Government trying to make life so difficult for them? You would have thought that any Prime Minister who wanted to fire up the economy would double down on what is a tried and tested formula for growth. Instead, Rishi Sunak seems intent on putting up so many taxes and barriers that you would be forgiven for wondering why a){kind=link}
Anyone who dares to take the risk faces three savage demons: high taxes, enormous regulations and rampant inflation
When Napoleon supposedly called us a nation of shopkeepers, echoing the French revolutionary Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, he would have meant it as an insult. “Let Pitt then boast of his victory to his nation of shopkeepers,” de Vieuzac declared in a speech to the National Convention on June 11, 1794, seemingly apeing the economist Adam Smith when he wrote in The Wealth of Nations 18 years earlier: “To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers.
“It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.”
Today, we can confidently say that the likes of de Vieuzac and Napoleon got it wrong, for the shopkeepers have proven to be the secret to Britain’s success. It is as a result of being one of the world’s foremost trading nations that we now boast Europe’s most successful city, London, which also happens to be one of, if not the greatest financial centre on the planet. And across Britain, we’ve fostered more “unicorns” – that is companies worth more than $1billion – than Germany and France, and possibly as many as both of them combined.
But as was observed in 18th century France, it is small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that have always been the true backbone of Britain’s economy. Even in this age of multinationals they account for 99.9 per cent of the business population (5.5 million businesses), three fifths of all employment (16.3 million) and around half of turnover in the UK private sector (£2.3 trillion or 52 per cent).