Southern Rhodesia and Britain's discriminatory sterling area : the dollar crisis and post-war colonial tobacco trade, 1947-1960

dc.contributor.authorNcube, Sibanengi
dc.contributor.authorNyamunda, Tinashe
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-03T09:06:15Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractDrawing on archival material from the National Archives of Zimbabwe, Adam Matthews Digital Archives and newspaper reports, this study locates Southern Rhodesia’s tobacco industry within post-war currency developments and the politics of international trade. Following the Second World War, the shift in the financial balance of economic power triggered by the shift from the gold standard to the reformed gold standard had a lasting impact on global trade. This resulted in the British retreat from the position of hosting the global key currency denominated in sterling towards the US dollar from 1944 onwards. This study utilises the effects of this shift in the case of Southern Rhodesia, a British colony, and its impact on one specific commodity: tobacco. Because of the dollar crisis of 1947 in Britain, however, and Cold War geopolitical considerations explored in this paper, Britain was extended some leeway by the United States to recover from the losses of two world wars and a depression, as well as the loss of key currency status in ways that resulted in the establishment of a discriminatory sterling area that informed colonial trade dynamics in interesting ways. This paper thus brings the experience of Southern Rhodesia’s tobacco industry into sharp focus by centring it in the context of international exchange arrangements and trade considerations in the post-Second World War period. In doing so, it illuminates imperial-colonial relations in a settler colonial setting against the background of post-war Anglo-American economic relations.en_US
dc.description.departmentHistorical and Heritage Studiesen_US
dc.description.embargo2024-02-02
dc.description.librarianhj2023en_US
dc.description.urihttp://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fich20en_US
dc.identifier.citationSibanengi Ncube & Tinashe Nyamunda (2022) Southern Rhodesia and Britain’s Discriminatory Sterling Area: The Dollar Crisis and Post-War Colonial Tobacco Trade, 1947–1960, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 50:6, 1123-1144, DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2022.2098623.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0308-6534 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1743-9329 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1080/03086534.2022.2098623
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/91783
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.rights© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an electronic version of an article published in Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1123-1144, 2022. doi : 10.1080/03086534.2022.2098623. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.comloi/fich20.en_US
dc.subjectSouthern Rhodesiaen_US
dc.subjectEmpireen_US
dc.subjectTobaccoen_US
dc.subjectPost-waren_US
dc.subjectDollar crisisen_US
dc.titleSouthern Rhodesia and Britain's discriminatory sterling area : the dollar crisis and post-war colonial tobacco trade, 1947-1960en_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Ncube_Southern_2022.pdf
Size:
241.51 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Postprint Article

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: