When your major export is financial services, the wealth doesn't typically spread around all that much. There are plenty of Britons that aren't poor; just look

When your major export is financial services, the wealth doesn't typically spread around all that much. There are plenty of Britons that aren't poor; just look at the City of London. Building out the monetary and trade networks they did enabled them to buy their goods where the labor was a lot cheaper (and more abundant) than it was in Britain. Same reason Americans are poor -- ever since Wilson we've barely been effectively a separate country in the first place. The only big difference, and why Americans aren't quite as poor on average, is that America still has natural resources. Britain's got some oil, but not a ton else -- their resources previously came from their colonies.