what would happen If Britain became totally self sufficient?

Question

what would happen if Britain closed its borders and became totally self sufficient with no imports or exports. serious answers only please

Answer 1

As we import oil the problem would be the price of fuel which would rocket. However if we are no longer in deficit with the rest of the world the problem could be controlled. However I would like to see you close the borders.

Answer 2

During the Victorian era, Britain was an industrial country, since then, and particularly since the early 1960's much of this has now stopped for one reason or another (cheaper foreign imports of coal, steel, cars etc.etc. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for Britain to become self sufficient...at the very best it would take centuries for it to be a viable option..and a dramatic reduction in the number of people living there even then.

Answer 3

Well, for this to happen, Britain would have to take a step into the past, i.e. back into the medieval period. Then, Britain would be at the mercy of nature - a famine would be able to kill thousands. The reason medieval England escaped the worst of the European famines unlike other countries is because it relied more heavily on trade, allowing it to import in times of crisis.

We'd also loose out on a lot of what we take for granted, think about it; no more curries (as rice doesn't grow well in our climate and many of the spices are imported), bananas, oranges, and so forth. It would be a similar situation to WWII rationing.

Economically, I think self-sufficiency would be disastrous; with no exchange of goods, the economy would rapidly stagnate, leading to economic turmoil (inflation, unemployment, etc).

Answer 4

Well, apart from it being impossible, we'd become poorer. We would also not be able to have things like bananas etc. But really in this world we cannot be "self sufficient". But if we were we would produce all our goods and services and we would produce some of these less efficiently than we could import them, therefore we would have to pay more for them. Also because we stopped our exports the things we are good at doing would bring in no money so again we would impoverish ourselves. We would also have to do without some things - bananas, steel etc as we don't have these things in economic quantities in our country.

Answer 5

It would fold. I do voluntary work in a large british port. The major exports are scrap metal to China and old vehicles to Africa. But you would not BELIEVE what is coming in. In the days of Empire almost everything that came in was robbed, stolen or otherwise detached from the Empire and they exported wool, cotton clothes, machines. Now they give away most of the exports and pay high for imports. The UK is living on the proceeds of selling off the family silver.

Answer 6

The economy couldn't work like that, we have our strengths which we can export, and our weakness which we can import. Globalisation is the future, and countries who deny that and try to be self sufficient are very likely to fail. Also, we'd probably fall behind technologically, economically etc.

Answer 7

People would die because it is impossible to produce enough food on an island the size of Britain for a population the size of Britain. I know this as we had a discussion about it during one of my economics lessons.

Answer 8

we would become a third world county over-night. We don't have the resources or the know-how to produce for ourselves anymore (look how badly we suffered during world war 2 when our supply chain was cut off.) We exist in symbiosis with the international community

Answer 9

We've spent the last 500 years setting our selves up to skim the profit off international trade .
Without it we'd be broke.
But it's nothing to be proud of really .

Answer 10

Sorry it is'nt possible just now, certainly not with thr population the UK has. Even with a drastically reduced population we still need imports of something.