IMF Conditionality and the United Kingdom, 1944–70: ‘My Appeal was Essentially Based on Bogus Dignity’

Abstract

Robert Gilpin (1987: 122) has characterized the conflict between domestic economic autonomy and international economic stability as the ‘fundamental dilemma’ of international monetary relations, arguing that ‘the manner in which this dilemma has or has not been resolved in large measure defines the subsequent phases in the history of the international monetary system.’ This chapter examines the postwar evolution of the mechanisms by which conflicts between domestic economic autonomy and international monetary imperatives were reconciled, and how these mechanisms affected Britain up through the early 1970s.

1967–70 Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins (1991: 274) regarding his efforts to ease the terms accompanying the UK’s 1969 IMF borrowings.