Backing Britain?: Imagining a nation's global economic future since 1900

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In recent years historians have shown a great deal of interest in how national economies have stimulated, contested and resisted globalisation. Nineteenth-century Britain is recognised as a leading actor in the development of the global economic order through its role in stimulating the Atlantic economy and creating networks of imperial trade. Yet whilst we know much about the cultural economy of the 'British world' of trade in the Victorian era, there are few similar works exploring the twentieth century. This study focuses on how Britain's economic future and relationship with its overseas markets has been imagined, debated and contested since 1900: a tumultuous period in which free trade and protectionism have fluctuated in support, the imperial economy was gradually dismantled, and the European Union has taken shape. In line with the AHRC's Care for the Future theme this project will break new ground in creating a bridge between historical and contemporary ways of discussing Britain's future global economic identity. Building on existing international research collaboration, it will evaluate the changing ways that Britain's economic direction and its overseas markets have been imagined and conceptualised by a range of different actors and the implications that this has for the nation's future economic identity in the current day. Drawing on a range of archives, attention will focus on the perspectives of governmental organisations, businesses, civil society organisations, marketers and advertisers. This project will pay particular attention to the changing ways in which British and overseas goods were presented in patriotic purchasing campaigns such as 'Buy British' in 1931, the Australian British buying campaigns of the 1940s, and 'I'm Backing Britain' in 1968. The notion of defining a product or company as 'British', 'imperial' or 'foreign' was vital to understandings of national and imperial economic identity. Recent work has explored how a 'British world' identity emerged in the nineteenth century, with the development of networks of migration, trade and culture which bolstered links between Britain and settler communities. Much of the most innovative work in this field has focused on the perspectives of settler societies within the British Empire. However, the cultural debates which surrounded the unravelling of this 'British world' of economic networks in the twentieth century are less well understood. This project will include archival research in Australia and New Zealand, thereby offering new perspectives on how external actors in the Empire/ Commonwealth fed into key debates about Britain's economic future, promoting, questioning and contesting ideas about a 'British world' of economic networks. Project findings will be discussed with the public in an exhibition held in collaboration with the Bill Douglas Centre for Film Studies, with academics from a variety of disciplines at an accompanying research workshop, and in policy papers for the Centre for Economic Policy Research and Institute for Public Policy Research. Two research articles will be produced for the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History and the Journal of Modern History, which provide the foundation for a monograph. International debate will be stimulated by UK-Chinese research workshops to be held in Exeter and Beijing. Britain's position during the current global financial crisis is heavily influenced by the historical development of international trade networks, which means that its economy is significantly more reliant on external markets than competitors in North America and Europe. This project will offer fresh understandings of how these networks were understood as Britain negotiated its role in the global economy over the last century. By offering historical insights into the 'economic imagination' of Britain it provides new perspectives on the foundations of the nation's identity in today's globalised economy.