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Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Acknowledgement
This is a revised version of a talk given to the 33rd History of Economic Thought Society of Australia Conference in Melbourne, Victoria, on 22 September 2022. I am very grateful to Alex Millmow for inviting me to speak. The author thank him and Michael McClure for helpful suggestions and, for encouraging critical comments, Selwyn Cornish, David Laidler and David Vines.
Notes
1 It was through the Labour Club that he met Colin Clark who became a good friend (Millmow Citation2021, 26–28).
2 Meade also knew Ronald Walker, the later distinguished Australian diplomat, presumably through Dennis Robertson who had supervised Walker for a Cambridge PhD in 1931–1933, and he reviewed two of Walker’s books (Meade and Walker Citation1937, Citation1944).
3 Cornish Citation2002, 23–24; Fennell Citation2019, 293, 297; Turnell Citation2002, 114; PET(42)1st-13th meetings 23, 29 and 30 October, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 November 1942 DO35/1014/7 UK National Archives London.
4 Meade’s own view of Commonwealth preference, was, as he put it in October 1943: ‘Personally, in the interests of the Commonwealth, of Anglo-American relations and of a World Order, I hope that [UK] Ministers in the end will come to offer an immediate and complete abolition of preferences as part of a really comprehensive and radical clearance of trade barriers’ (Howson and Moggridge 1990, 136–137).
5 Rowse Citation2002, 122–124; Howson Citation2011, 454; Coombs to Chifley 12 July 1943 RBA C.3.20.2.1 Reserve Bank of Australia Archives.
6 PCP(43)1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th meetings on 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 June 1943 T230/129 UK National Archives.
7 Report of the Canadian Representatives at the ‘Post-War Commercial Policy Discussions’ held in London between 15 June and 30 June 1943, RG19 vol 3447 National Archives of Canada.
8 Howson and Moggridge Citation1990a, 105, 128, 130, 139; minutes of Committee on Employment Policies 1st, 2nd, 3rd meetings 5, 12, 14 October 1943 and Employment Policies Paper No 2 International coordination of measures for the maintenance of high levels of employment RG 43 ITO Box 19 File Art VII Discussions on Full Employment US National Archives.
9 ASD(44) 1st meeting 23 February 1944 CAB99/34 UK National Archives; Cornish Citation1999, 137–139; Evatt to Melville 27 January 1944 RBA C.3.9.1.83 Reserve Bank of Australia Archives.
10 Memorandum by Mr Melville Report on London Discussion on Article VII: February–March 1944 RBA C.3.9.1.8 Reserve Bank of Australia Archives; ASD(Trade)(44) 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th meetings, 25 February, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 March 1944 BT11/2352 UK National Archives.
11 … ASD(44)(Employment) 1st, 2nd, 3rd meetings 29 February, 6, 14 March, ASD(44)14 Draft International Employment Agreement 14 March and ASD(Employment) (44) Employment Policy 18 March 1944 BT11/2352; ASD(44)(16) Article VII Discussions with Representatives of the Dominions and India Agreed Summary of Discussions 21 March 1944 BT11/2351 UK National Archives; Melville Report on London Discussion on Article VII: February–March 1944 RBA C.3.9.1.8; Cornish and Schuler Citation2019, 181–182.
12 The Final Act of the conference only recommended that the participating countries ‘reach agreement as soon as possible on ways and means whereby they may best … facilitate by cooperative effort the harmonisation of national policies … designed to promote and maintain high levels of employment and progressively rising standards of living’.
13 When Copland was in England in 1933 he paid a visit to Oxford of which he recorded he had met Roy Harrod and Robert Hall but not Meade (Copland ‘Occasional notes - 26th May 1933’ GM 302/412 Bank of New South Wales (Westpac) Archives sent me by Alex Millmow).
14 Robbins to Eady (Treasury), Clutterbuck (Dominions Office) and Liesching (Board of Trade) 13 November 1944 CAB123/229 UK National Archives; notes by Copland 2 and 3 December 1944 Copland Papers MS 3800 Box 152 National Library of Australia.
15 Meade to Hohnen 26 January 1950 ANU 19/9.2.1.2 ANU Archives; Meade to Peter Swan 2 November 1989 Meade Papers 4/40; Swan, P. 2022 Vol I: 263–91. It is not known, unfortunately, whether Swan told Meade of his 1943 macroeconometric model of the Australian economy 1928–1939 (Swan Citation1989). Both men were well acquainted with Tinbergen’s (Citation1939) work; Meade had commented on it in draft when he was working with Tinbergen in Geneva in 1938.
16 … On the negotiations see Pressnell Citation1987 ch. 10, Howson Citation2011 ch 17 and for Meade’s involvement Howson and Moggridge 1990a, 132, 143–147, 149–155, 162–166, 171–172, 176–179, 185–186.
17 Howson and Moggridge Citation1990b, 277–279, 285; EC(S)(46)26 (Revise) International employment policy 22 August 1946 Meade Papers 3/2 LSE Archives; CP(46)364 International Employment Policy Memorandum by the Lord President of the Council 30 September 1946 T236/703 UK National Archives.
18 TN(P)(BC)(46)2nd, 3rd, 9th and 11th meetings 4, 5, 9 and 10 October and Annex A Restrictions to safeguard the balance of payments attached to TN(P)(BC)(46)4 Quantitative restrictions to safeguard the balance of payments Note by the United Kingdom Delegation 2 October 1946 RBA C.3.10.2.7 Reserve Bank of Australia Archives.
19 TN(P)(46)1st, 2nd and 4th meetings 12, 14 and 17 October 1946 BT274/76.
20 E/PC/T/CI/PV/2 Verbatim Report of the Second Meeting of Committee I. The summary records and verbatim reports of all the meetings are available online from the World Trade Organisation.
21 E/PC/T/CI/4 Committee I Summary Record of Meetings Second Meeting (Part Two) held on Monday, 21 October 1946 at 3 p.m.; TN(P)(46)8th, 9th and 10th meetings 22, 23 and 24 October 1946 BT274/76 UK National Archives; E/PC/T/C.I/T6 International Employment Policy Memorandum by the United Kingdom Delegation 26 October 1946; E/PC/T/CI/11 Committee I Report of the Sub-Committee 4 November 1946; TN(P)(46)17th and 18th meetings 1 and 4 November 1946 BT274/76; E/PC/T/CI/18 Committee I Summary Record of Meetings Fourth Meeting held on Thursday, 14 November 1946 at 10.30 a.m.
22 E/PC/T/C II/QR/PV/2 Verbatim Report of the Second Meeting of the Sub-Committee of Committee II on Quantitative Restrictions and Exchange Control … on Tuesday 12th November 1946; E/PC/T/C II/QR/PV/3 Verbatim Report of the Third Meeting of the Sub-Committee of Committee II on Quantitative Restrictions and Exchange Control … on Wednesday 13th November 1946; E/PC/T/C II/QR/PV/4 Verbatim Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Sub-Committee of Committee II on Quantitative Restrictions and Exchange Control … on Friday 15 November 1946.
23 E/PC/T/A/PV/16 Verbatim Report of Sixteenth Meeting of Commission A held on Monday, 23 June 1947 at 2.30 p.m. in the Palais des Nations, Geneva; E/PC/T/A/PV/28 Verbatim report of the twenty-eighth meeting of Commission A held on Tuesday, 8th July 1947, at 2.30 p.m. in the Palais des Nations, Geneva; TN(47)32 Report by the United Kingdom Delegation on the Discussions at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Trade and Employment Conference CAB134/713 UK National Archives. On Coombs at Geneva see Rowse Citation2002, 132-137.
24 25. Metaxas and Weber write (2016, 493) with respect to The Balance of Payments (1951): ‘James Meade’s analysis had a profound influence on Trevor Swan. His influence was visible in Swan’s first paper (presented in 1953 and published in 1960) but was most clearly conveyed … in his second paper through the Swan diagram (presented in 1955 and published in 1963). Swan’s adaptation of Meade’s framework inspired other graphical models by Salter (Citation1959) and Corden (Citation1960).’ Corden has written of his work in international trade theory that ‘It will be obvious to any reader where my principal intellectual debts are owed: to James Meade’s Trade and Welfare (Meade 1955) …‘(Corden 1974. vi) and that in Corden 1958 ‘I saw myself as applying standard economic principles to current Australian issues. I had learned these principles at the London School of Economics … and had been most influenced by James Meade’s book Trade and Welfare Meade was my supervisor at the LSE and I read the proofs of this book while I was a student’ (Corden 2005, 1; see also Corden 2017: 93–110).
25 … Downing to Copland 29 October 1948 Downing Papers University of Melbourne Archives; Copland to Hancock 22 September and Hancock to Copland 27 November 1948 quoted in Cornish Citation2007, 5, 9, 14.
26 Copland to Meade 31 March 1949 Meade Papers 17/3, Copland to Meade 4 November 1953 Meade Papers 4/3, LSE Archives.
27 Meade Journal of Tour in the United States of America March to September 1952 entry for 9 May Meade Papers 1/8; Melville ‘Sterling convertibility, the rival faith’ 11 April 1952 RBA c.3.7.6.43; Melville to Meade 9 October 1952 and Coombs to Meade 16 February 1953 Meade Papers 4/3.
28 Draft letter of invitation 1954 and Board of Graduate Studies Electoral Board for the Visiting Professorship in Economics and Finance attached to R.A. Hohnen to H.W. Arndt 12 August 1954 and Minutes of Meeting 16 August 1954 Arndt Papers MS 6641 Box 133 Folder 4 National Library of Australia.
29 Glesinger to Meade 25 April 1946 Meade Papers 17/19; Meade to Robbins 22 April 1956 Robbins Papers 3/1/13 LSE Archives; Notes on visit to Perth 5-11 April 1956 Meade Papers 10/1; Meade to Wilfred Prest 20 April and Prest to Meade April 1956 W Prest Papers University of Melbourne; Uncle Errol to ‘Jim’ 3 May, Joyce Wood to Meade 27 June and Meade to McCarthy 14 June and McCarthy to Meade 15 June 1956 Meade Papers 17/19.
30 Arndt to Meade 23 May 1956, ‘Notes for talk in Australia, 1956 The International Background’, ‘Welfare & Trade’ Meade Papers 17/19. Another paper presumably given at ANU was on ‘Welfare and trade’ i.e. on the work he had done in the second volume of The Theory of International Economic Policy.
31 Arndt, who had attended Meade’s lectures in Oxford (Arndt Citation1985, 4), may also have met Meade in London in 1941 when Arndt was appointed research assistant to the secretary of the Committee on Postwar Reconstruction at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Coleman, Cornish and Drake Citation2007, 43–44), though by the time he was writing his famous report (Arndt 1944) Meade was recorded as ‘Inactive or resigned’ (‘List of persons who received papers of the Economic Group of the Reconstruction Committee’ [June 1942] RIIA 9/19h).
32 Professor Meade’s Address’ and ‘Discussion on Current Conditions’ RBA C.13.15.9.37 Research Department General Economic Conditions Meeting of University Economists Final Documents July 1956 Reserve Bank of Australia Archives.
33 Programme, ‘Objectives of monetary policy’ and H.D. Black to Meade 31 July 1956 Meade Papers 17/19; ‘Objectives of monetary policy’ in Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand Economic Papers No 11 Developments in Monetary Policy Sydney: Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand 1956, 5–20.
34 A.R. Low Reserve Bank of New Zealand to Meade 23 August 1956 Meade Papers 4/6; ‘Objectives of monetary policy’ with amendments made at Waterloo Hotel Wellington in Meade Papers 17/19. Meade visited Australia once more. In August 1972 he and his wife visited their daughter Bridget and son-in-law Edward Dommen who were living and working in Fiji in 1971-4, flying via Perth and crossing Australia by train (information from Bridget Dommen.)
35 Russell to Meade 25 October 1956 and ‘Some special features of the Australian economy’ Meade Papers 4/6; Meade to Russell 15 November 1956 Meade Papers 17/19.
36 Corden ‘Wage rates, the cost of living and the balance of payments, A note on Professor Meade’s model’ [December 1956] Meade Papers 17/19; Arndt to Downing 1 June 1957 Arndt Papers Box 210 Folder 17 NLA MS 6641; Meade to Downing 13 July 1957 Downing Papers University of Melbourne Archives.
37 Economic growth with one industry producing Machines and another Consumption Goods’ Meade Papers 10/4.
38 Robertson ‘Conundrum for Meade and Swan’ 17 February 1963 Meade Papers 4/14; Meade to Peter Swan 2 November 1989 Meade Papers 4/40. No reply has been found to Robertson’s note, which was written on the same day that Swan was staying with the Meades.