Many authors point at the late Victorian era as one of stagnation in the UK economy. Some feel that while other countries were enjoying rapid growth, Britain was under-performing and was being caught, and in some cases over-taken by other nations.
Victoria was on the throne from 1837 until 1901, but it is the last 3 decades of her reign that come under scrutiny from historians trying to pin-point a climacteric point where Britain's economic performance in output and productivity took a turn for the worse.
Pollard says that the economic failure noted by many historians could mean 2 things, either the loss of momentum in the British economy, with a slowing down of both growth and development, or the relative rise of other economies which could catch up and move ahead through technical innovation and capturing growing shares of world markets.
Both of these scenarios have been suggested by various sources. The slowing down of British industrial growth was first commented upon by Hoffmann. Pollard is sceptical about the figures and notes large discrepancies between estimates, but agrees that "there seems to be an agreement on the slowing of the rate of growth". Pollard suggests that even though a failure of total industrial production to maintain a high rate of growth may reflect a decline, but it may simply show a switch of resources from industry to services or other sectors which may even cause a rise in income as is said to have occurred in the late Victorian economy. There are many factors contributing to the lack of uniformity in estimates of total industrial production, different series include slightly different activities under the heading "industry". The switch from old to newer industries, which can be registered in different ways, could have contributed to the lack of uniformity also.
On the subject of exports, Schlote found that export growth slowed after 1870. Pollard, stating that exports were the only reliable figure for international comparison at the time, also notes a "clear dip" during the 1880s and 1890s but says that there was an "equally clear recovery" thereafter.