1933-1945: From Pounds to Dollars: The Shift of International Economic Hegemony

Author: Zhang Zhenjiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: This book studies the economic diplomacy between the United States and Britain from 1933 to 1945. The economic crisis that broke out in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the major developed countries of the West completely destroyed the international economic system based on the gold standard. As the leader of the old system, Britain, and the United States, which had already become the world's largest economy, both formulated their respective foreign economic strategies: symbolized by the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Act, the United States sought to implement a "New Deal" in the field of international economics, aiming to establish a U.S.-led world economic system and international peace; facing the crisis and declining international status and influence, Britain chose a strategy of self-preservation: abandoning free trade and forming an "Imperial Preferential System" centered around Britain, with the British Empire as a defense line. Through a large number of bilateral payment and trade agreements, Britain maintained and expanded its economic sphere of influence. These two entirely different strategies determined the inevitable encounter between the two sides. Thus, around the 1933 London World Economic Conference, the 1936 Anglo-French-American Tripartite Monetary Agreement, the 1938 U.S.-British Trade Treaty, and the war debts and reparations that affected the entire international relations during the two wars, the two sides engaged in a prolonged and largely evenly matched diplomatic struggle. However, the outbreak of World War II completely changed the pattern of the struggle between the two countries in the 1930s. With the roles of the leader of World War II and a supplier of strategic materials, the United States redefined its strategy for reshaping the post-war international economic system. The domestic consensus and will to pursue world economic hegemony were like an arrow drawn back, poised to be released. Britain's situation was the opposite; it increasingly relied on the United States in terms of military and strategic materials. As a result, around the Fourth Article of the Atlantic Charter, the "Lend-Lease Compensation" negotiations, and the international financial blueprint and international trade plans for shaping the post-war international economic system, as well as the 1945 U.S.-British Financial Agreement, the British had to step by step to accommodate, deal with, struggle, retreat, and accept the U.S. plans, and ultimately accepted the fact that the United States would lead the post-war international economic system. This was a war without smoke, a historical segment where an emerging great power and a declining former hegemon played out the transition between old and new hegemonies in the field of international economics. Understanding this history is of great significance for understanding the essence of the modern international economic system, world economic hegemony, and U.S. strategy, as well as for thinking about and guiding China's relations with the international economic system and hegemonic countries.