Trade and Economy 1914-1945

Question 1

Figures to show Br reached its greatest extent after the post war treaties:

Answer 1

Br Emp reached its greatest extent with the addition of 1,800,000 square miles and 13 million new subjects.
Colonies of Ottoman Empire and Germany distributed to the allied powers as League of Nations mandates.
Br gained control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon, Togo and Tanganyika.

Question 2

What happened after war?

Answer 2

Costs of war drained Br of its investments and dried up its markets - became increasingly reliant on empire to supply the agricultural and mineral resources it consumed and to purchase manufactured the manufactured goods it produced.

Question 3

Between 1915 and 1920 did British imports increase (figures)?

Answer 3

In the years 1915-20, imports from Asia (mainly India), sub Saharan Africa and Australia reached roughly double the value they had held in the period 1910-14.
Those in Canada actually tripled.
This growth in trade compensated for the decline of European, Latin American and other markets - though a big exception was the US, which saw the value of its exports to Britain triple.

Question 4

For imperialist ideologues what did the trends of trade seem to be tracking towards?

Answer 4

the imperial self-sufficiency they had long advocated.

Question 5

Examples of Imperial self-sufficiency:

Answer 5

Imperialists persuaded Parliament to give an official recognition of Empire Day in 1916.
They established the Empire Resources Development Committee (1916) to encourage investment in and exploitation of imperial resources.
They convened the Empire Settlement Committee in 1917 to draw up plans to provide ex-servicemen with free passage to the empire after the war.
They steered the Imperial Conference of 1917 into endorsement of empire settlement by veterans and a trade policy based on imperial preference.
They responded to Dominions’ complaints about the lack of consultation in the war by creating the Imperial War Cabinet, which gave the dominions premiers quasi-ministerial standing in the government.

Question 6

What is Kennedy’s argument?

Answer 6

Kennedy - makes a convincing argument that one of the key (economic but also more general) effects of WW1 was that it created a greater awareness among the establishment for a need for imperial self-sufficiency - of a kind that had not been in vogue pre-1914.
This is an argument which can be made very convincingly considering the reforms that arise in the Inter-War period - and even post 1929 (which was obviously not foreseen in 1918) - where imperial self sufficiency and promoting imperial bonds were often a key aim.

Question 7

Examples of Br attempting to return things back to pre WW1:

Answer 7

returning to the gold standard in 1925 to try to stabilise its international trade and setting up a range of initiatives to try and achieve this normalisation of trade:
The Empire Development Parliamentary Committee (1920)
Empire Development Union (1922)
Empire Industries Association (1924)

Question 8

How much did the government allocate a year to promote the sale of imperial products?

Answer 8

The government allocated £1 million per year to the Empire Marketing Board (established 1926) to promote the sale of imperial products.

Question 9

When was the Imperial Wembley Exhibition?

Answer 9

1924-5

Question 10

What did Frederick’s Lugard’ Dual Mandate Book argue?

Answer 10

Br had a duty to both develop a colonies’ resources, but also prevent exploitation of the natives.

Question 11

Price of loans to East Africa and Palestine?

Answer 11

£10 million loans to East Africa and Palestine in 1926.

Question 12

When was the Colonial Development Act and what was it?

Answer 12

1929 - established a fund that colonies could draw on to fund their own commercial ventures (and the idea that as colonies grew richer, so would the strength of the empire and the intra-imperial trade).

Question 13

In 1919 what did the Colonial Office create?

Who was chair?

Answer 13

The Overseas Settlement Committee to promote imperial emigration
- Leo Amery

Question 14

What was the Empire Settlement Act of 1922?
Was it succesful?
Why was it done?

Answer 14

Empire Settlement Act of 1922 committing £3million a year for empire migration.

• By 1929 - 67% of migrants chose imperial destinations.
• to ensure a friendly attitude in those places and also to help the economics of the empire as these feelings would result in a prosperous relationship.

Question 15

What was the Geddes Axe 1922/

Answer 15

Lloyd George appointed Sir Geddes to head the new committee on National Expenditure which was dubbed “The Great Axe”
Between 1921 and 1922 it recommended economics totalling £87 million, about 10% of the country’s entire GDP.

Question 16

What were the cut to the army and navy?
And civil service numbers?
And wage cuts?

Answer 16

Biggest cuts in army and navy - defence budget was cut by 42% in the space of 1 year.

• Civil Service numbers cut by 35% - mostly female staff hired during the war.
• At the close of 1921, wage cuts averaging 8 shillings a week had been imposed on 6 million.

Question 17

What wa the balance of trade in Br manufactures by 1924?

Answer 17

By 1924 the balance of trade in British manufactures showed a surplus of £262 million with the Empire as a whole.

Question 18

Between 1925-9 the Empire was taking how much of all Br exports?

Answer 18

Between 1925 and 29 the Empire was taking 37.2% of all British exports - chiefly manufactured goods and Br was receiving from the whole Empire imports - mainly of food and raw materials - 32.9%.

Question 19

In the 1930s what was trade with Canada like?

Answer 19

In the case of its trade in manufactures with Canada, Britain actually began trading at a deficit during the 1930s.

Question 20

What fact reflects in part the success of the Indian nationalist campaign to boycott British textiles.

Answer 20

Trade in manufactures with India suffered a very sharp decline - falling from a surplus of £75 million in 1924 to £22.7 million by 1937

Question 21

Facts of effect of Wall Street Crash:

Answer 21

Br exports to China fell from £71.25 million in 1929 to £300,000 in 1936.
Br’s overall share of imports to India fell from 75.2% in 1928-9 to 48.7% of in 1932-3.
India’s imports from Japan rose from 18.4% of total imports in 1928-9 to 47.3% of total imports in 1932-3.

Question 22

What haoppened after Wall Street Crash?

Answer 22

there was an even clearer move to focus more on the imperial aspect of trade. - encouraging people to buy imperial products; though the advertising was more prominent than the results ever were.

Question 23

Br exports to the world in comparison to the Empire in 1913 AND 1934?

Answer 23

Br exports to world 1913: £525m 1934: £378m
Br exports to Empire 1913: £195m 1934: £166m
A rise of imperial exports from 37.2% to 44%

Question 24

When was Ottawa Conference?

What was it

Answer 24

1932
Br introduced a 10% tax on all imports, but exempt Crown Colonies
Br and Dominions gave each other’s exports preferential treatment

Question 25

Fact to show the increase of raw cotton imports to Br from Empire in 1913 and 1934?

Answer 25

1913: 3% 1934: 17.1%

Question 26

While India did supply more imports, it was gradually taking fewer and fewer British imports - why?

Answer 26

its markets for cotton textiles going to first the Japanese and them domestic Indian producers over the next 10 years.

Question 27

Which dedicated free trader resigned from National Government in protest of Ottawa?

Answer 27

Snowden

Question 28

Was Ottawa successful?

Answer 28

Ottawa agreements were an undoubted success
Inter-Imperial trade was very significantly increased between 1932 and the outbreak of WW2.
Between 1929 and 1938, Br improved its position as easily the most important trading partner of the dominions, with the exception of Canada with its intimate trade connections with the US.
Britains trade with the Empire overall substantially increased with the Empire during the period 1931-1937.
The total of Br imports from the Dominions, India and the colonial empire increased from 24% of total overseas trade in 1931 to 37% in 1937.

Question 29

When was the Sterling Area established?

Answer 29

1930
another Br product of the Great Depression.
Forced off the Gold Standard in 1930, Br bought the whole of the Empire-Commonwealth, with the exception of Canada and some middling sized foreign states.

Question 30

Despite the clear turn towards imperial sources for resources, was Br abandoning its attempts to maintain its economic interests elsewhere?

Answer 30

Despite the clear turn towards imperial sources for resources, it was not that Br was abandoning its attempts to maintain its economic interests elsewhere.
1933: The Roca-Runciman pact allowed Argentina, which sent 40% of its exports to Britain to keep almost all its pre-Ottawa share of the Br market for chilled beef.

Question 31

Why Statute of Westminster and Ottawa?

Answer 31

Such political freedom was clearly in response to a fear that the Empire would otherwise acrimoniously break up, and so the creation of the Commonwealth was seen as the best way to maintain imperial goodwill and unity.

Likewise, the move to this form of imperial preference under Ottawa was seen as an attempt to keep the Empire together, by making it more economically reliant within itself, so reducing the temptation of breaking up the Empire.