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ARTICLES |
Britain's External Economic Policy in the Early 1950s: The Historical Significance of operation Robot
University of Warwick
In February 1952 the British Cabinet met to consider implementing a series of proposals that would have transformed the postwar international political economy. The policies, code-named Operation Robot, centred on introducing sterling convertibility on a floating exchange rate allied to the blocking of sterling balances and the reopening of the London gold market on budget day, 11 March. To assess whether the defeat of Robot is of historical significance this article analyses the likely impact of the plan on the international political economy in the 1950s looking in particular at its effect on the Sterling Area, Europe, and the United States. It concludes that the plan would have changed fundamentally the existing international order leading most probably to the closure of the European Payments Union and the International Monetary Fund. Robot would also have undermined Franco-German co-operation and provided support for the British conception of European collaboration with sterling at the heart of an enlarged Commonwealth/European trading area.