Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Britain's international economic position in the 1920s
- 2 The political economy of protectionism
- 3 Imperial preference and the Ottawa Conference
- 4 The Scandinavian negotiations: formulation of policy
- 5 Completion of the first phase of negotiations: Scandinavia, Germany and Argentina
- 6 The world economic conference, Finland and Japanese competition
- 7 The Baltic states and Poland
- 8 British agricultural policy and imports during the 1930s
- 9 British exports to the trade agreement countries
- 10 Appeasing Germany and the United States
- 11 Some general conclusions
- Appendix A United Kingdom: payments, clearing etc., Agreements in force 1931–1938
- Appendix B Miscellaneous trade and payments agreements
- Appendix C Imports into Britain from foreign agreement countries
- Appendix D Total exports from Britain to foreign agreement countries and four dominions
- Appendix E Imports of selected commodities into UK, 1931, 1937, showing percentage from Empire sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Britain's international economic position in the 1920s
- 2 The political economy of protectionism
- 3 Imperial preference and the Ottawa Conference
- 4 The Scandinavian negotiations: formulation of policy
- 5 Completion of the first phase of negotiations: Scandinavia, Germany and Argentina
- 6 The world economic conference, Finland and Japanese competition
- 7 The Baltic states and Poland
- 8 British agricultural policy and imports during the 1930s
- 9 British exports to the trade agreement countries
- 10 Appeasing Germany and the United States
- 11 Some general conclusions
- Appendix A United Kingdom: payments, clearing etc., Agreements in force 1931–1938
- Appendix B Miscellaneous trade and payments agreements
- Appendix C Imports into Britain from foreign agreement countries
- Appendix D Total exports from Britain to foreign agreement countries and four dominions
- Appendix E Imports of selected commodities into UK, 1931, 1937, showing percentage from Empire sources
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When two of the symbols of Britain's nineteenth-century economic hegemony, the gold standard and free trade, were abandoned in the winter of 1931–2, British external economic relations were revolutionised. One result of the new regime of protection and preferences was that access to the United Kingdom market, long determined by market forces alone, became subject to conscious regulation. One of the awful paradoxes of the 1930s was that in a decade scarred more than most by hunger and shortage, too many products sought too few outlets: selling them became a matter of privilege. As Britain entered into a series of trade agreements, the immense size of its market helped give government negotiators considerable leverage in their dealing with suppliers.
Historians have paid full attention to economic relations with the Empire, particularly the dominions. Sir Keith Hancock's classic study appeared in 1942, and since then Ian Drummond has made full use of official records to produce his authoritative surveys of imperial economic policy. Non-imperial relations have received much less attention, especially those with European suppliers. In this book I aim to make a contribution to filling this gap, and at the same time to take an overall view of British commercial policy in the 1930s, including the domestic implications of the treaty arrangements. It is a study of British policy, based mainly on UK official documents and seeing events primarily from London's perspective.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Protectionism and the International EconomyOverseas Commercial Policy in the 1930s, pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993