Trade Challenges Confronting Commonwealth Countries

To discuss future trade strategy from a global point of view, having in mind the economic welfare and development of the world economy as a whole, it is as well to put the problem in perspective.1 The outstanding consideration is the sharp historical contrast between the world economic experience of the interwar years and that of the quarter-century which has elapsed since the end of World War n. The two decades between the first and second world wars were marked by an international monetary collapse, mass unemployment for nearly half that period, relatively slow economic growth, and virtual stagnation in most of the underdeveloped parts of the world. By contrast, the period since the end of World War n has been marked by the maintenance of high levels of employment without serious recessions, by rates of growth high by comparative historical standards, even in Britain which has grown relatively slowly compared with the rest of Europe, and by the diffusion of the process of economic growth and development, albeit haltingly, to areas of the world previously regarded as incorrigibly backward and stagnant. Such remarkable success in maintaining prosperity and promoting economic growth cannot plausibly be ascribed to any miraculous improvement in the techniques of economic management employed by governments. The evidence simply is not there. The most that can be said is that governments have not been foolish enough to precipitate or aggravate crises by inappropriate policies as happened after 1929. Instead the success

Commonwealth · Development economics · Economics · International economics · International trade · Political science · Australian History and Society · Global trade and economics · Law

• Industrial tariffs and spheres of influence

  Hugh Corbet•The Round Table•1973

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