‘British Empire in metals’: Non-state actors and the political economy of imperial minerals, 1913–39

Abstract

This paper explores the salient features of British and Imperial cooperation and policymaking in the command and control of global strategic minerals. It analyses first, the formation of the Imperial Minerals Resources Bureau (IMRB) and the British Metals Corporation (BMC) between 1913–1918; and second, the imperial business-political networks key to realising an imperial minerals strategy between 1919–1939. We explore the porous nature of imperial business and political networks, and the social capital and shared worldviews, that shaped and underpinned this strategy against the changing politics of the British Empire and the transformation of the global economy. In exploring this, we deploy the concept of non-state actors (NSAs), those not formally employed by the state but acting on their behalf.