Why British shares have flourished But any assumption that more exotic exchanges have lusher grass than our own doesn't hold up. For instance, over the last 20 years to June 2013, UK Equities returned 7.8pc, comfortably beating out the 6.4pc from global equities excluding the UK and, by the way, the annual returns offered by commodities, gilts and gold. So, constituent companies in the FT All Share are continually winnowed down to the crème de la crème. It may sound cruel to say it, but the undoubted recent hardship in the UK's industrial north is just not that relevant for, say, ARM, the FTSE 100 designer of chips for Apple, whose shares are up 12-fold over the last five years. Next, there's a further and underestimated implication of this non-identity between the UK stock market and UK economy. This is that the centuries-long global outlook of British businessmen has resulted in a corporate sector that is remarkably global in constitution. We estimate only 30pc of the annual sales generated by quoted British companies actually derive from the domestic economy. Nearly 70pc comes from overseas; indeed, UK quoted companies book more business in emerging markets than they do at home. The UK is truly a global stock market - offering access to most of today's great global investment themes. What's more - and again this cannot be overemphasised: if you invest in, for example, Unilever you access not just Unilever's wonderful brands and distribution in Brazil, India and Indonesia. You also access those assets with the full backing of British corporate governance, accounting standards and our custom of sharing profits with shareholders via progressive dividends. Sure, you can get more excitement by investing directly into Brazilian, Indian or Indonesian corporations. But most of us, I think, recognise the attractions of investing in a jurisdiction where the Rule of Law is well-entrenched. A final reason for the disenchantment may relate to another start date. It is natural that many investors look to January 1 2000, the dawn of a new millennium, as an appropriate juncture from which to assess returns. But it so happens that date is peculiarly unflattering for UK equities - being the peak of the fin-de-siècle technology mania. In fact the FT All Share is only about 8pc higher than it was 13 years ago; scarcely a pulsating performance. But what I'd say, as an admittedly self-interested UK Equity investment veteran of 32 years, is that this long period of mediocre returns portends better times to come. It always has before. Nick Train is investment manager of the Finsbury Growth & Income investment trust