A map of the British Isles' international trading routes for food and raw materials. Charley raises the map, interrupting the unseen narrator and complaining, "I thought this film was supposed to be about me". The narrator concedes, and instead of a film about the economic history of Britain, it becomes a film about Charley.

Charley lives with his wife on a farm, where they support themselves with the food they produce. When Charley or his wife need a luxury item they can't make themselves, Charley sells some items and with the money he earns buys luxury items such as spice from abroad.

Life continues like this until Charley starts to use machinery to make items to sell. His prosperity grows, as does his family. With more mouths to feed, he has to work extra hard in his factory to increase his output. Being first on the international market he can command a good rate of exchange and installs engineering works, banks and other businesses abroad. He also accumulates lots of international property. He can now afford to work less in the factory and spend more time at home with his wife and family and drinking tea.

But while Charley is resting on his laurels, other countries are becoming industrialised. When two world wars break out, Charley has to leave his family to go and fight to retain his international assets. To pay for what he has lost in the wars he has to sell some of his overseas property and work extra long hours in his factory. After the second world war, there is a shortage of food and raw materials and the price of most goods increases. Charley is losing money fast. Luckily welcome relief is on its way in the form of monetary aid from the United States. But this help only buys Charley time to prepare his own way in the world and he has to keep working hard manufacturing more goods for export. If he doesn't, and keeps increasing his imports, he will lose everything, including his business and home.

Unhappy with the ending, Charley interrupts the narrator again: "it doesn't have to be like that. It could just as well be like this". Charley's home and factory are restored and he continues to lead a happy and prosperous life by working hard and producing plentiful goods to export and to support his family.