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First, However, Attention Must Be Turned To The Way In Which The Scottish ...

First, however, attention must be turned to the way in which the Scottish economy changed during the twentieth century in order to fully comprehend the extent of the challenges facing Scotland today.
Like the remainder of the United Kingdom, Scotland's economy during the first half of the twentieth century was dominated by heavy industry and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing. Scotland was able to exert influence over the global economy by producing important industries that were essential in the maintenance of the British Empire with coal and steel in particular being essential commodities of the industrial revolution. Many of the ships that transported the concept of the Empire to all corners of the globe emanated from Scottish docks, especially Glasgow, which was in the process of becoming a major European urban centre at this time. The triumph of industry had a major impact upon both the education and work infrastructures of the Scottish economy whereby school leavers would have been assured of a job in either industry or manufacturing. Moreover, like all of the industrialised regions of the UK, such as the South Wales Valleys and the NorthEast of England, the two world wars that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century were vital in terms of ensuring that manufacturing and industry kept growing at a sustainable rate even when the value and meaning of the Empire began to lose its national and international significance. This is certainly true of the Second World War when the vast majority of British ships were constructed in Glasgow, furnishing the Scottish economy with a vibrant workforce and a guarantee of work for school leavers of all ages. However, when the war was over and the British economy was left to cover the cost of six years of debilitating warfare, the entire domestic economy began to suffer a meltdown from within, exacerbated by the troops returning from Europe and Asia looking to reclaim their prewar jobs.
Gradually, after 1945, the influence not only of the Scottish economy but also of the British economy and Empire began to wane, which had important logistical consequences for the state education system in Scotland, especially with regards to forging an individualist entrepreneurial culture within secondary schools (Paterson, 2003:129155). As one of the key instigators of Britain's industrial mastery over the world, the decline in world power was particularly acute in Scotland where a sense of a lack of direction was especially marked in the immediate postwar years.

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