Keynes
and the Postwar World Order Planning
– Internationalism, the British Empire
Interests and Pragmatism
Toshiaki
Hirai
(Sophia University)
Keynes revealed three aspects in his activities
for the postwar world order in the 1940s – internationalist as a
planner, pragmatist in the negotiations, and a defender of the British Empire
interests. This report is to show this, based on the three papers which
examine, respectively, a commodity problem, a relief and reconstruction
problem, and an international monetary system. (Evaluation of his creative
plans and their present significance, which is another purpose of this project,
is to be left for another occasion).
At
first Keynes designed and put forward plans filled with the spirit of
internationalism. As the practical political and economic situations proceeded,
however, he came to show an aspect of a pragmatist, making it, among others, a
priority to protect the interests of the British Empire as follows.
(1) Commodity problem – Keynes put forward the Fifth version of
International Buffer Plan (April 1942) filled with internationalism.
However, the buffer stock plan made a series of transformation due
to criticism from various governmental departments. The
essential transmutation is that in the drafts following the Fifth version
restriction on output was increasingly emphasized to such a degree that they
lost the first principle which featured the Fifth version.
We cannot find any document to show Keynes’s
dissatisfaction with this transformation. Keynes
rather seems to have worked as a sort of political pragmatist.
(2) Relief and reconstruction problem – In
October 1941 Keynes put forward the Central Relief and Reconstruction Fund
(CRRF) Plan filled with internationalism. In February 1942, however, he came to
adopt a pragmatic line mainly dependent on the existing Lend-Lease, giving up
the CRRF Plan because of an abrupt economic deterioration of the British Empire.
(3) International monetary system – The negotiation between the UK and
the US started with a face-off of the ICU plan and the SF plan (Oct.23, 1942).
However, the initiative was gripped by the US, as was seen in June, 1943 Keynes
tried to integrate the two plans based on the SF plan.
The British tried to
incorporate a feature of the ICU plan into the SF plan by monetizing unitas,
but in vain. Then, Keynes came to justify the SF plan, stating that it was more
crucial to secure a financial aid from the US. Here we see some pragmatism.
