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ABSTRACT
This essay analyses the shifting rationales of official British aid policy between the sterling crisis of the late 1940s and the oil crisis of 1973-74. In spite of changes during the transition from the colonial empire to independent states at the time, the period shows considerable continuities in Britain’s aid policy, conceptions of development, and approaches to external economic and financial relations. In the immediate post-war period, development aid was closely connected to colonial development policy and imperial economy-building. In the late 1950s, however, British aid policy separated from colonial development as the result of a crisis of both development finance and the imperial bond. During the 1960s, the Overseas Development Ministry formulated a dedicated aid policy geared towards development in independent post-colonies. Yet, aid was ultimately an integral part of Britain’s economic management in a wider world. In this setting, while the hierarchical organisation of aid for imperial development came to a close, official British aid policy still sought to align overseas aid to the requirements of Britain’s external economic and financial relations, especially during economic crises. The argument about the contextual formation of aid policy has relevance beyond the period under review.
Acknowledgments
A previous version of this paper has been presented at a panel of the World Economic History Conference, Boston, 2018. I wish to thank the members of the panel and the discussant, Gareth Austin, for their comments, and Ichiro Maekawa for convening the panel.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Suni, The Global Revolutions of 1968; Mazower, No Enchanted Palace, ch.4.
2 Unger, International Development, chs.4 and 5; Bocking Welch, British Civic Society at the End of Empire; Hilton et al., “History and Humanitarianism.”
3 Cowen, “Early Years of the Colonial Development Corporation;” Westcott, Imperialism & Development; Hodge, Triumph of the Expert, conclusion.
4 Select Committee on Overseas Aid, OD 36/236.
5 Cohen, “Development in Africa,” 45.
6 Cohen, “Development in Africa,” 44.
7 Escobar, Encountering Development.
8 Cowen, “Early Years,” and Cowen and Shenton, “The Origins and Course of Fabian Colonialism in Africa.”
9 Cowen and Westcott, “British Imperial Economic Policy during the War.”
10 Cowen, “Early Years;” Westcott, Imperialism & Development; for Nigeria also Hinds, “Colonial Policy and the Processing of Groundnuts.”
11 See, for instance, Bates, Beyond the Miracle of the Market, especially ch.2.
12 Krozewski, Money and the End of Empire, ch.5.
13 See, for example, Westcott, Imperialism & Development, ch.6.
14 Cowen and Shenton, “The origins.”
15 Cohen, “Uganda’s Progress and Problems,” 113-14.
16 Tignor, W. Arthur Lewis and the Birth of Development Economics, ch.2.
17 Tomlinson, “‘The Weapons of the Weakened.’”
18 Jessop, “The Colonial Stock Act of 1900.”
19 For a fuller account of the argument, see Krozewski. “Britain and the Reordering of Overseas Aid.”
20 Sunderland, Managing British Colonial and Post-Colonial Development, 34 and passim.
21 Based on figures in CAOG 9/33.
22 CAOG 9/33.
23 United Kingdom, Trustee Investments Act. London: HMSO, 1961.
24 Krozewski, “Britain and the Reordering,” 144-5.
25 Krozewski, “Britain and the Reordering,” 147-8.
26 Ireton, Britain’s International Development Policies, 25.
27 Krozewski, Money, 157.
28 Ireton, Britain’s International Development Policies, 185.
29 Krozewski, Money, 114-15.
30 Arowolo, “The Development of Capital Markets in Africa.”
31 Aid to Developing Countries (HSMO, 1963, Cmnd. 2147).
32 Ireton, Britain’s International Development Policies, 21.
33 Ireton, Britain’s International Development Policies, 186-7.
34 For the argument in this section, see Krozewski, “Global Britain.”
35 See notably the “Harris Working Party,” August 1964, TNA, Kew, OD 20/268; and the 1963 White Paper, Cmnd. 2147, Aid to Developing Countries, 48.
36 For a case study, see Tomaru, “The Colombo Plan and British Publicity Policies.”
37 Slater and Bell, “Aid and the Geopolitics of the Post-Colonial.”
38 ODM, summary of departmental views on aid document, 1 July 1965, TNA, OD 36/8.
39 Scammell, The International Economy, ch.11.
40 Ministry of Overseas Development, September 1969, “Guidelines for the Operation of the Aid Programme,” OD 36/225.
41 Report from the Select Committee, Cmnd. 4687, 20.
42 Overseas Development Administration, March 1973, OD 36/351.
43 Prentice, “More Priority for Overseas Aid,” 1-2. Compare also the figures in Tomlinson, “The Commonwealth, the Balance of Payments and the Politics of International Poverty,” esp. 424.
44 Oliver and Hamilton, “Downhill from Devaluation.”
45 OD 36/236, Select Committee on Overseas Aid: Policy and Procedure. The first committee was set up on 24 April 1969 and reported on 1 March 1971: Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, Session 1970-71, Together with an Appendix and the Proceedings of the Committee (London: HMSO, 1 March 1971). The White Paper was published as Cmnd. 4687.
46 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 20.
47 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 11–12 and 59.
48 House of Commons, Hansard, 6 March 1969.
49 See House of Commons, Hansard, 28 November 1969; and Wilson, The War on World Poverty: An Appeal to the Conscience of Mankind (London: Victor Gollancz, 1953).
50 House of Commons, Hansard, 28 November 1969.
51 House of Commons, Hansard, 6 March 1969.
52 House of Commons, Hansard, 27 November 1969.
53 Cmnd. 4687, 15.
54 House of Commons, Hansard, 6 March 1969.
55 Compare, House of Commons, Hansard, 31 January 1952.
56 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 63.
57 House of Commons, Hansard, 6 March 1969.
58 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 61-2.
59 Stockwell, “Imperial Liberalism,” 1015.
60 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 61.
61 Cmnd. 4687, 4; also House of Commons, Hansard, 17 January 1974.
62 House of Commons, Hansard, 9 June 1971, and Hansard, 14 February 1972.
63 See Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 26-31, and the view expressed in Cmnd. 4687, 7.
64 The Reorganisation of Central Government. London, HMSO, October 1970, Cmnd. 4506; also the “Prime Minister’s Review of Functions,” initiated in December 1970, for which see T 317/1991.
65 D.L. Pearson, FCO/ODA, to E.A.W. Bullock, Treasury, 6 March 1973, FCO 59/1002.
66 Minute, R.M. King, 5 March 1971, “Report of the Select Committee on Overseas Aid,” OD 36/236.
67 Chairman’s Report on Aid Policy Working Party, Confidential, [Sir Philip Adams, Cabinet Office], no date [autumn 1971], OD 36/225.
68 R.E. Radford to M.G. Smith, “Interdepartmental Review of the Aid programme,” 15 November 1971, OD 36/236.
69 Select committee report, March 1971: 24.
70 FCO 59/1002.
71 House of Commons, Hansard, 14 February 1972.
72 Ministry of Overseas Development, September 1969, “Guidelines for the Operation of the Aid Programme,” OD 36/225.
73 Hopkin, “Aid and the Balance of Payments.”
74 Report from the Select Committee, Cmnd. 4687, 16-8.
75 Radford to Smith, 15 November 1971, OD 36/236.
76 Compare the assessment and figures in D.L. Pearson, ODM, to K.C. Christofas, Commonwealth Financial Policy Department, “Proposed Framework for 1969/70,” 9 August 1968, FCO 48/102, with that in “Aid Framework 1973/74,” enclosed with note of 4 April 1973, FCO 59/1002.
77 For debates about multilateral initiatives to tackle the problem, see the working papers in file 133009 of the IMF online archives.
78 Memorandum, “Ghana External Debt Situation,” M.P.J. Lynch to Peter Reitter, 9 February 1970, IMF online archive 57072.
79 Office memorandum, Back-to-office-report Mission to Ghana, Thomas M. Klein to Arthur E. Tieman, IBRD, 15 April 1971, IMF online archive 57072.
80 Galpern, Money, Oil, and Empire in the Middle East, esp. ch.4.
81 Altamura, “A New Dawn for European Banking: The Euromarket.”
82 Garav, “Completing Decolonization: The 1973 ‘Oil Shock.’”
83 D.M. Kerr, Financial Relations Department, to Marshall, “Oil and Aid,” 29 November 1973, FCO 59/1015.
84 Cabinet, Defence and Oversea Policy Committee, Confidential Annex, DOP(73) 23 Meeting, 21 November 1973, “Overseas Aid Policy,” FCO 59/1015.
85 See for the debate in connection with the Kennedy Round, for instance K.C. Christofas, ODM, “The Aid Programme and Food Aid,” 2 May 1967, TNA FCO 48/105.
86 John Hunt, Cabinet Office, to Anson, Cabinet Office, “Oil Prices and Aid Policy,” 23 January 1974, CAB 164/1253.
87 ODA [prepared in consultation with the Treasury], “Oil Prices and Aid Policy,” 18 January 1974, CAB 164/1253.
88 Rawlinson, UK Director IBRD/IMF Washington to FCO, “Oil and the Developing Countries,” 19 December 1973, FCO 59/1015.
89 J. Anson, Cabinet Office, to Sir John Hunt, Cabinet Office, “Oil Prices and Aid Policy,” 24 January 1974, CAB 164/1253.
90 R.E. Radford, FCO/ODA, to N.E. Robins, DTI, “Review of the Aid Programme: Association of Aid and Commercial Credit,” 2 November 1971, OD 36/225.
91 See, for instance, John Wilson, West Africa Department, 27 October 1972, “Policy towards Africa: The EEC Factor,” and E.A.J. Fergusson, United Kingdom Delegation to the European Communities, to J.E. Cable, Planning Staff, 19 October 1972, FCO 31/1116.
92 European Economic Community, Development Assistance Committee, Annual Aid Review 1968, Report by the Secretariat and Questions, T 317/1282. For the wider dimension of EEC aid policy, see Dimier, The Invention of a European Development Aid Bureaucracy.
93 Fergusson, 19 October 1972, FCO 31/1116.
94 I.G. Patel, “The Link between the Creation of International Liquidity and the Provision of Development Finance,” Report of the Committee on Invisibles and Financing Related to Trade: Further Considerations of the Report of the Expert Group on International Monetary Issues. Geneva, UNCTAD, 1967.
95 For the institutional history, see Streeten, Aid to Africa, 135-44; also Helleiner, International Economic Disorder.
96 International Monetary Fund, Allocation of SDRs and Financing of Economic Development, prepared by the Research Department (in consultation with other Departments), approved by J.J. Polak, 11 September 1972 [IMF online archive No. 170024].
97 Allocation of SDRs, 27.
98 See: The Acting Secretary to Members of Executive Board, IMF, 16 November 1972, [IMF online archive No. 284716].
99 Select committee report, 52.
100 Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Aid, 52-3.
101 Cmnd. 4687, 16.
102 Memorandum, Overseas Development Administration, for the Select Committee on Overseas Development, March 1973, OD 36/351.
103 For an indicative comparison, see statements by Roy Jenkins, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), Annual Meeting, Board of Governors, summary proceedings, 1968, 88, Anthony Barber, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, and George P. Shultz, US Treasury Secretary, IBRD, Annual Meeting, 1972, 149 and 190 respectively; IMF Digital Archives Nos. 53404 and 53408.
104 For example, compare the praise by Prentice and Judd for British civil society with Blaazer, “‘Devalued and Dejected Britons.’”
105 For the latter, see Połońska-Kimunguyi and Kimunguyi, “‘Gunboats of Soft Power.’”