The term mouse fly is kind of a contradiction and one of the types of flies that brings the word fly in fly fishing almost as far away from something flying as possible - still surpassed by shrimp flies not to mention crab flies, but anyway...
One of the reasons Britain became rich was because the Industrial Revolution (factories and such) got off the ground there sooner. Britain had a large navy, and many colonies in other parts of the world, such as India, and Rhodesia.
Another theory is that Britain was able to succeed in the Industrial Revolution due to the availability of key resources it possessed. It had a dense population for its small geographical size. Enclosure of common land and the related agricultural revolution made a supply of this labour readily available.s late as the year 1900, most industrial workers in the United States still worked a 10-hour day (12 hours in the steel industry), yet earned from 20% to 40% less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life. However, harsh working conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place.