The history of these countries should not be forgotten and they have historically been great nations for trading. It is the desire for trading that led them to all parts of the world. This process has been followed by all the nations in the area and for at least the last three hundred years. In UK the Board of Trade was established in 1696 and exists even today as a part of DTI.

             Analysis: .

             The starting of a trade department in UK before a foreign office demonstrates the centrality of trade to the British way of life. The situation changed during the depression of the 1930s, and countries were compelled to continually raise tariffs to be able to protect their domestic markets, but the total effect that was seen was to minimize overall economic growth rather than protect the economic prosperity of the concerned country. In short, protection had made the depression worse. The situation changed after 1945. Countries understood the benefits of opening up economies to external competition and this led to the signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade -- GATT in 1947 which was to form, for the first time, a global framework for free trade. (Free trade and the euro) .

             The wealth of a country does not depend on size, and among the 5 largest countries in the world in terms of population, China, India, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil, only the United States has succeeded in becoming a rich country. But the richest country in the world as seen in 2000, in relation to income per capita, was Luxembourg, which had less than 500,000 inhabitants. It can be seen that among the richest nations in the world, many have populations less than the world median, of which the figure was about 6 million people in the year 2000. In terms of growth of per capita income, rather than income levels, again small countries are among the top performers. Singapore, with 3 million inhabitants, can be taken as an example and it faced the highest growth rate of per capita income for any country between the years 1960 and 1990.