Staving off the Protectionist Slide: Snowden and the Struggle to Keep Britain Open

Abstract

Traditionally, the interwar collapse of European and international integration is thought to have been overdetermined in its causes and redundant in its scope. International decline, combined with protectionist interests and ideology at home, made Britain abandon its signature free trade policy and embrace an Imperial Preference system in 1932. However, this narrative veils the intense debate during 1929–1931 over whether the Labour Government’s internationalist trade policies should be sacrificed for the sake of the economically consolidating the British Empire. When leading intellectuals and policymakers found themselves compelled to embrace tariffs and preferences in the hope of addressing the economic slump, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden launched a powerful defence of free trade, effectively staving off Britain’s introduction of protectionism in 1930.