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The Balance Sheet of Empire, 1850–1914*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Andrew Porter
Andrew Porter
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Abstract

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Type
Historiographical Reviews
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 685 - 699
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 Davis, Lance E. and Huttenback, Robert A., Mammon and the pursuit of empire: the political economy of British imperialism, 1860–1912 (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar. Page and chapter references in the text are to this book.

2 MacKenzie, John M., Propaganda and empire: the manipulation of British public opinion, 1880–1960 (Manchester, 1984)Google Scholar; and MacKenzie, John M. (ed.), Imperialism and popular culture (Manchester, 1986)Google Scholar. Under MacKenzie's editorship, Manchester University Press has established a new series, Studies in imperialism, ‘to develop the new socio-cultural approach to imperialism which has emerged through cross-disciplinary work on popular culture, media studies, art history, the study of education and religion, sports history and children's literature during the past few years’.

3 Cain, P. J. and Hopkins, A. G., ‘Gentlemanly capitalism and British expansion overseas. I. The old colonial system, 1688–1850’, Economic History Review, XXXIX, 4 (1986), 501–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Gentlemanly capitalism and British expansion overseas. II. New imperialism, 1850–1945’, ibid. XL, I (1987), 1–26.

4 Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XIII, 3 (1985)Google Scholar; republished in Porter, A. N. and Holland, R. F. (eds.), Money, finance and empire 1790–1960 (1985), pp. 28–76Google Scholar.

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6 Cairncross, A. K., Home and foreign investment 1870–1913 (Cambridge, 1953)Google Scholar; Saul, S. B., Studies in British overseas trade, 1870–1914 (Liverpool, 1960)Google Scholar; Hall, A. R., The London capital market and Australia 1870–1914 (Canberra, 1963)Google Scholar; Hall (ed.), The export of capital; Cottrell, P. L., British overseas investment in the nineteenth century (1975)Google Scholar; Edelstein, Michael, ‘Foreign investment and empire, 1860–1914’, in Floud, Roderick and McCloskey, Donald (eds.), The economic history of Britain since 1700 (2 vols., Cambridge, 1981), II, pp. 70–98Google Scholar; Edelstein, Michael, Overseas investment in the age of high imperialism: the United Kingdom, 1850–1914 (1982)Google Scholar. Most recently, see Pollard, Sidney, ‘Capital exports, 1870–1914: harmful or beneficial?’, Economic History Review, XXXVIII, 4 (1985), 489–514Google Scholar.

7 For example, Kubicek, R. V., Economic imperialism in theory and practice. The case of South African gold mining finance 1886–1914 (Durham, N.C., 1979)Google Scholar; Hynes, William G., The economics of empire: Britain, Africa and the new imperialism 1870–95 (1979)Google Scholar; Denoon, Donald, Settler capitalism. The dynamics of dependent development in the southern hemisphere (Oxford, 1983)Google Scholar.

8 Clarke, Peter, Liberals and social democrats (Cambridge, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cain's, work began with ‘J. A. Hobson, Cobdenism and the radical theory of economic imperialism, 1898–1914’, Economic History Review, XXXI, 4 (1978), 565–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for later articles and his exchanges with Clarke, see the references in his ‘J. A. Hobson, financial capitalism and imperialism in late Victorian and Edwardian England’, in Porter, and Holland, (eds), Money, finance and empire, pp. 1–27Google Scholar. See also Cain, Peter, ‘Hobson, Wilshire and the capitalist theory of capitalist imperialism’, History of Political Economy, XVIII, 2 (1986)Google Scholar.

9 See note 3 above.

10 Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G., ‘The political economy of British expansion overseas, 1750–1914’, Economic History Review, XXXIII, 4 (1980), 463–90Google Scholar; Cain, P. J., Economic foundations of British overseas expansion 1815–1914 (1980)Google Scholar.

11 Etherington, Norman, ‘The capitalist theory of capitalist imperialism’, History of Political Economy, XV, 1 (1983), 38–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Theories of imperialism. War, conquest and capital (1984); see also his ‘Theories of imperialism in South Africa revisited’, African Affairs, LXXXI, 2 (1982)Google Scholar.

12 For example, on South Africa, Atmore, A. and Marks, S., ‘The imperial factor in South Africa in the nineteenth century: towards a reassessment’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, III, 1 (1974), 105–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Van-Helten, J. J., ‘Empire and high finance: South Africa and the international gold standard, 1890–1914’, Journal of African History, XXIII, 4 (1982), 529–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Most recently on Egypt, A. G. Hopkins, ‘The Victorians and Africa: a reconsideration of the occupation of Egypt, 1882’, ibid, XXVII, 2 (1986), 363–91. Further illuminating discussion is to be found in Osterhammel, Jürgen, ‘Semi-colonialism and informal empire in twentieth-century China: towards a framework of analysis’, in Mommsen, Wolfgang J. and Osterhammel, Jürgen (eds.), Imperialism and after. Continuities and discontinuities (1986), pp. 290–314Google Scholar.

13 Platt, D. C. M., Britain's overseas investment on the eve of the First World War (1986)Google Scholar; also his Foreign finance in continental Europe and the U.S.A., 1815–1870: quantities, origins, functions and distributions (1984), and ‘British portfolio investment before 1870: some doubts’, Economic History Review, XXXIII, I (1980), 1–16Google Scholar.

14 Cottrell, P., ‘A patrician's empire’, unpublished paper, LSE Workshop, 01 1987Google Scholar.

15 Chapman, S. D., ‘British-based investment groups before 1914’, Economic History Review, XXXVIII, 2 (1985), 230–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; R. V. Turrell and J. J. Van-Helten, ‘The investment group: the missing link in British overseas expansion before 1914?’, ibid, XL, 2 (1987), 267–74; S. D. Chapman, ‘Investment groups in India and South Africa’, ibid. 275–80; see also Chapman's, book, The rise of merchant banking (1984)Google Scholar. Munro, J. Forbes, ‘Clydeside, the Indian Ocean and the city: the Mackinnon investment group, 1847–1893’, The city and the empire, volume 2 (Collected seminar papers no. 36) (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, 1987), pp. 1–10Google Scholar; and ‘Shipping subsidies and railway guarantees: William Mackinnon, East Africa and the Indian Ocean, 1860–1893’, Journal of African History, XXVIII, 2 (1987), 209–230Google Scholar.

16 Chapman, S. D., ‘The restructuring of mercantile enterprise in the later nineteenth century’, unpublished paper, LSE Workshop, 01 1987Google Scholar.

17 See, for example, the survey by Hopkins, A. G., ‘Big business in African studies’, Journal of African History, XXVIII, I (1987), 119–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 For one recent view, see Hyam, Ronald, ‘Empire and sexual opportunity’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XIV, 2 (1986), 34–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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20 Kesner, R. M., Economic control and colonial development. Crown colony financial management in the age of Joseph Chamberlain (Westport, Conn., 1981), ch. 6Google Scholar; Tomlinson, B. R., The political economy of the Raj 1914–1947 (1979), ch. 1Google Scholar; Charlesworth, Neil, British rule and the Indian economy 1800–1914 (1982), esp. pp. 64–6Google Scholar. Among recent studies, see Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, ‘Anglo-Indian banking in British India: from the paper pound to the gold standard’, in Porter, and Holland, (eds.), Money, finance and empire, pp. 93–108Google Scholar; and Nelson, W. Evan, ‘The gold standard in Mauritius and the Straits Settlements between 1850 and 1914’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XVI, I (1987), 48–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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22 Jalal, Ayesha, ‘India's partition and the defence of Pakistan: an historical perspective’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XV, 3 (1987), 289–310CrossRefGoogle Scholar is very suggestive in connexion with the issues raised here.

23 Knox, Bruce, ‘The concept of empire in the mid-nineteenth century: the colonial defence inquiries of 1859–61’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XV, 3 (1987), 242–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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25 Kesner, Economic control and colonial development, ch. 3; also ‘The builders of empire: the role of the Crown Agents in imperial development, 1880–1914’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, V, 3 (1977), 310–30Google Scholar.

26 On this field, see Porter, Andrew, Victorian shipping, business and imperial policy. Donald Currie, the Castle Line and Southern Africa (Royal Historical Society, Studies in History no. 49, Woodbridge and New York, 1986)Google Scholar.

27 Parliamentary Papers (P.P.) (1909) XLVII, XLVIII, Cd. 4668, Cd. 4685, Cd. 4686, for the Report of the royal commission on shipping rings, and Minutes of evidence.

28 Porter, Andrew, ‘Britain, the Cape Colony and Natal, 1870–1914: capital, shipping and the imperial connection’, Economic History Review, XXXIV, 4 (1981), 554–77Google Scholar.

29 Ibid. 557–66.

30 P.P. (1909) XVI, Cd. 4473, Report of the committee of enquiry into the organization of the Crown Agents' office, with a despatch from the secretary of state for the colonies; Cd. 4474, Minutes of evidence and appendices.

31 Kubicek, Robert V., The administration of imperialism. Joseph Chamberlain at the colonial office (Durham, N.C., 1969), pp. 64–6Google Scholar.

32 Important assessments of Davis and Huttenback's work have now also been made by O'Brien, P. K., ‘Did the empire pay?’, Times Literary Supplement, 24 07 1987, pp. 799–800Google Scholar; Kennedy, W. P., Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 08 1987, p. 15Google Scholar; and Hopkins, A. G., ‘Review article. Accounting for the British empire’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, XVI, 2 (1988), 234–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.