I was squatting a banana plantation in Guadeloupe once where there was a Durian tree, Superficially, Breadfruit and Durian look quite similar and the only reason I knew it was a Durian tree was because someone had recently taken a chainsaw to it. The fruit was splattered all over the ground and looked [and smelled] quite disgusting. The Malayan variety of Durian is an important Australian export.
Here in the UK, I have occasionally seen both Durian and Breadfruit in speciality shops. They actually look quite similar, so it is worthwhile checking what they are before buying.
Rationing in the UK ended in 1954, two years before I was born. During the late 50s and early 60s, economic activity [an indicator of wealth] was roughly comparable to the late 1930's. This was a time of tight money where credit, along with the associated imports, were difficult to get and spare cash was something to hoarded. (cf
Mrs Beeton's Cook Book)
As a result of the pound being a reserve currency, we, [older forum members] were
lucky(?) enough to spend our adult lives in a time of loose money with easily available credit and plenty of disposable cash. Of course, this had costs: Most notably, the resulting abundance of cheap imports completely wiping out UK manufacturing. (see
Exorbitant privilege and the
Triffin paradox.)
Older forum members will recall how in the late sixties a major topic of the News was the UK's balance of payments. After the
Nixon shock, with successive UK governments supporting the pound as a reserve currency at the expense of manufacturing, (resulting in the
cumulative current account deficit dropping through the floor,) this was no longer a topic the powers that be wished to highlight. However, the graph of the decline in manufacturing more or less mirrors the graph for the cumulative current account deficit. There is an old report from the ONS
here which illustrates the problem quite nicely.
