British Hegemony under the Gold Standard

Abstract

Abstract The findings in the previous chapter suggest the regime dynamics of the classical gold standard were fundamentally founded on neither cooperation between national governments nor cooperation among central banks. If the gold standard was not, in terms of origin and stability, a cooperative or negotiated regime, was it an imposed or hegemonic regime (as, in fact, much of the economic historiography on the period says it was)? The idea that international regimes are founded on the efforts of very powerful nations, usually referred to as hegemons, has become a fairly common one in the study of international political economy. The vision is very strongly state-centric in its orientation, in that national governments (rather than subnational actors) are seen as being mobilized in pursuit of goals that conform to some observable national interest. Less commonly, such efforts may emanate from very powerful subnational (e.g., central banks) or transnational (e.g., churches) actors which are attempting to influence international relations in a way that achieves some benevolent or particularistic objectives. Specifically with respect to explaining the origin and perpetuation of the international gold standard, these two visions have fixed upon the British state and the Bank of England as the leaders or managers of the regime. This chapter will assess the extent of hegemony undertaken by the British state, while the next chapter will consider hegemony on the part of the Bank.