The politics of Imperial commerce: The Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, 1886-1914

"In the last sixty years, scholars working on the history of Britain’s relations with the self-governing settlement empire have tended to operate within two paradigms. The first, developed by Robinson and Gallagher and revised by Cain and Hopkins, understands these relations using models of informal empire. In recent years, a second line of interpretation has emerged emphasising the role of shared culture and dense networks in shaping what scholars such as Bridge and Fedorowich have called the ‘British world’. Recently this literature has begun to acquire economic dimensions through Magee and Thompson’s work on the British world’s ‘cultural economy’. This paper interrogates and ultimately critiques both approaches. It does so through a focus on a neglected pan-imperial institution: the Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, described by the economist William Ashley as the ‘unofficial commercial parliament of the empire’. From 1886 until 1972 this met periodically, bringing together representatives of chambers of commerce (themselves neglected institutions) across the empire to discuss matters of political economy and to network, interactions lubricated by imperial loyalty and (greater) British identity. The paper draws heavily on archival work on the papers of the Congress at the London Metropolitan Archive to reconstruct the history of the Congress from 1886-1914. It first examines the degree to which Magee and Thompson’s model of the cultural economy with its emphasis on networks and information flows provides sufficient explanation of the Congresses activities. It argues that while these factors played a role neither was central to its purpose. Rather it is argued that the Congress was conceived as a single business lobby seeking to shape the framework of political economy within which Commerce operated. This highlights the importance of pan-imperial institutions of governance for commerce (responsible government notwithstanding) and suggests the persistence and importance of a political life encompassing Britain and the dominions (‘Greater Britain’ to use a contemporary phrase). It is the existence of this quasi-federal politics which, in suggesting the existence of a federal polity (however nebulous) poses the most profound challenge to both paradigms outlined above."