Tea is not only for the British, but for the Chinese too. In March 2010, Starbucks launched their first batch of Chinese tea in China to help win the Chinese hearts over and attempt to boost the Starbucks empire. “It’s all based on demand from the locals,” says Huang Limin, the VP for marketing, product development and communications for Starbucks Greater China. “After much research, we’ve decided to launch nine kinds of tea products and to extend these products in the future.”

Afternoon tea, complete with scones, was a Victorian invention. In Britain, this traditional ritual is now going through a new golden age. The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge changes its tea menu every six months. Recent offerings have included a “Valentino clutch cake” and a “Dolce & Gabbana éclair.” Since 2004, the Ritz has served “afternoon” tea from 11.30am to 7.30pm and hosts nearly 150,000 people a year.

A UK main department store, John Lewis, stated that their sales of cookie cutters, cake stands and “vintage-style cake tins” have rocketed. The success of the programme The Great British Bake Off and events like National Baking Week emphasise that Britain is going through a baking fad: even if the Brits are in the doldrums because of the economic crisis – or maybe due to this – we certainly live with a “keep calm and carry on” motto. Live by your means, have a slice of cake and enjoy a cuppa!

Money and Beauty is curated by Tim Parks, a British writer based in Italy, and Ludovica Sebregondi, an Italian art historian. The show is divided into two parts: how money was made, and how it was spent. Masterpieces by Botticelli, Beato Angelico, Piero del Pollaiolo, the Della Robbia family and Lorenzo di Credi – the cream of Renaissance artists – show how the modern banking system developed in parallel alongside the most important artistic flowering in the history of the Western world.

The exhibition takes the visitor on a journey to the roots of Florentine power in Europe, but it also explores the economic mechanisms which allowed the Florentines to dominate the world of trade and business 500 years before modern communication methods were invented and, in so doing, to finance the Renaissance.

The exhibition analyses the systems that bankers used to build up their immense fortunes, it illustrates the way in which they handled international relations, and it also sheds light on the birth of modern art patronage, which frequently began as a penitential gesture only to then turn into a tool for wielding power.

In fact power and money often go together, but analysing how money talks through art is both provocative and priceless. Money is ephemeral, beauty lasts forever.

You can now start a company on Monday and be trading with the world by Wednesday. Do you think it’s a joke? Well, that’s what Emma Jones, the founder of Enterprise Nation wrote in her book “Go Global: How to take your business to the world”. She was one of the speakers at the UKTI conference “Sell British: Using Technology To Go Global” which took place in Nottingham on 18 October. The aim of this UKTI event was to give advice to SME’s wishing to use internet technology to grow their business and trade to a worldwide customer base.

Since the UK market is sluggish, there’s never been a better time to leverage technology and look overseas. You need to get your market research right and promote yourself, for example using social networks such Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr.

It is also important to have a website with a simple, visual impact and conversion tuning, as well as a company logo, clear navigation and key words for Google. You also need to translate and localise your website, which means making it feel and look right for the target market. German people, for example, expect to find a lot of technical information, whereas British people value the sales breath of the company.

Even if English is a world language, translating your website shows commitment to your target foreign market. Ask SanTranslate, your professional translation service provider, how they can help you reach a broader customer base.