'Poor', relatively speaking. In the 1890s Britain was the world's super-power, it was tremendously rich. It had an empire "on which the sun never sets". It drew

'Poor', relatively speaking. In the 1890s Britain was the world's super-power, it was tremendously rich. It had an empire "on which the sun never sets". It drew much of its wealth from India, the "Jewel in the Crown". Maybe it's richer today in purely numerical terms, but it's nowhere near as rich in, what we would call today, PPP terms. In those days One Pound Sterling truly was the value of a pound weight of sterling silver. Today, not so much.