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SUMMARY:German competition and the fashioning of British protectionism in 
 the 1920s - Brian Varian (Newcastle)
DTSTART:20241031T171500Z
DTEND:20241031T184500Z
UID:TALK222190@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:116791
DESCRIPTION:In 1925\, Britain adopted a policy of targeted protection of m
 anufacturing industries: the safeguarding of industries system\, which ant
 icipated the landmark Import Duties Act of 1932. Under this system\, an in
 dustry could request from the Board of Trade so-called safeguarding duties
  ‘…reasonably sufficient to countervail the unfair competition…’ f
 rom imports. If the Board determined that the industry exhibited a prima f
 acie case that it fulfilled several (vague) criteria\, the Board would con
 vene an ad hoc committee to inquire into the economic conditions of the in
 dustry and to make a recommendation whether and\, if so\, what level of du
 ties should be imposed. This paper argues that the Board exhibited an anti
 -German bias in selecting industries for safeguarding duties. Not only can
  this bias be inferred from the archival records of the Board of Trade\, b
 ut it can also be identified statistically\, controlling for other determi
 nants of industry selection. For the year 1924\, the 1\,003 manufactured c
 ommodity imports enumerated in Britain’s trade statistics\, which are fu
 rther disaggregated by trade partner\, have been matched to the 87 tradabl
 e-goods industries enumerated in Britain’s Third Census of Production (1
 924). Using a probit model and controlling for industry-specific character
 istics\, such as labour productivity and industry concentration\, I nevert
 heless find a residual anti-German bias in the selection of industries for
  protection. Already in the 1920s\, a bilateralisation of British trade po
 licy was emerging.
LOCATION:Room 6\, Faculty of History
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