Economists and the End of Empire, 1905-35

Abstract

This book is about economists and how they made a difference during one of the most turbulent periods of the early twentieth century. It spans the three decades from 1905 to 1935, a time of intense change: late nineteenth-century imperialism, colonial build-up, and the naval arms race; pre-war rebellions; World War I; the influenza epidemic; peace treaties; armed occupations; the partitioning of regions; hyperinflation; civil wars; the end of empires; imperial abdications; post-war rebuilding; socialist and communist revolutions; nationalist republics; unemployment; and the birth of dictatorships. The book explores the roles of a group of key economists who were at the heart of events at the time and views those times through their eyes. It was not an era when modern economic theory was well developed, nor was it one in which economists were always positioned at the heart of policy. Many of the events covered were primarily political, military, ideological, and social, but they all had economic underpinnings and effects, and there were implications for both economics and economists. The account covers the eclipse of many empires at this time: the (British-controlled) Indian Raj, the German Second Reich, the Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Japan’s Asian Empire, and Imperial China, each seen through the experience of a key economist. The economists are from different cultures and live very different lives. The stories of the imperial break-up are brought together in a final chapter on the League of Nations, offering internationalist alternatives to empire, against the backdrop of the British Empire.