Can Britain Afford Mitigating Artefact Hunting? Actually, no.

 

     Median household income increasing everywhere else       

In an article in the Economist magazine is a significant article by Nick Cohen: "2023: This time the UK’s decline is real" (14 Jan 2023). It summarises the opinions of economic historians about Britain’s dismal economic performance, who point out that the country has not been in such a state in the past two centuries:

We are not merely in relative economic decline against our competitors – we’ve experienced relative decline since the late 19th century – but in a period of stagnation of such length and severity that we are decoupling from the rich world. Unless current trends are reversed, the UK will become like Argentina and Italy: a country that was once was prosperous, and might have been more prosperous still, but lost its way. You do not need to be an economist to feel our decline. You see it in the shabbiness on the streets, the worn faces and clothes of passers-by, the frustration and disappointment of the young, the ambulances unable to discharge the sick and the dying, the pound shops and charity stores, the befouled rivers and beaches, the creaking criminal justice system, the inability to build anything from homes to a railway line, and above all in the decline in living standards [...] for most of the last 15 years the UK has just quietly tottered away from the prosperity of countries it once considered its equals.

A PAS that was set up a quarter of a century ago, like many other heritage protection systems, were created in a totally different economic environment. Today, the state can no longer afford to meet the obligations they imply. Another approach needs to be sought, precisely like hose of states like Italy where artefact hunting is regulated by a permit system. Making all archaeological material state property as there would also cut down the need to pay out expensive Treasure rewards.

At this rate, we will soon see an explosion of "subsistence looting' in the UK, though impoverished local buyers will not be buying British collectable artefacts, they will be going abroad to the expanding economies elsewhere.