Like the start of his mother’s reign all those years ago, King Charles III’s reign has begun in the middle of a war. Today, it is the war in Ukraine. In February 1952, it was the Korean War.
Like now, the British economy in 1952 was in trouble. Inflation averaged almost 11 per cent, the second consecutive year in which a conflict far away was leading to rapidly rising prices at home. The economy expanded a mere 1.6 per cent. Yet circumstances thereafter improved enormously, thanks to the armistice signed between North and South Korea in July 1953. Growth accelerated and inflation tumbled, both in the UK and elsewhere.
