The Failure to Restore the International Financial System after World War I

In my work for the LSE’s US Centre I have been assisting in researching, archiving, and proofreading materials for Professor James Morrison’s manuscript "England’s Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Road to Calvary". This project follows the failed restructuring of a cooperative international monetary system in the interwar period, and the impact of the Great Depression and the build-up to the Second World War on attempts to do so.

Faculty: James Morrison, Department International Relations
US Centre Research Assistant: Anna Cooper, Department of International History

Author

Anna Cooper

LSE International History

The chance to undertake archival responsibilities and engage more deeply with political economy research not only provided me with further insight into academia, but also revealed my own preferred research methods and interests.

Professor Morrison’s book analyses policies and orthodoxies surrounding the Gold Standard and the departure from the Gold Standard, and the role of high profile figures such as Keynes and Churchill in the international financial system throughout this period. My focus was primarily on John Maynard Keynes’s views and his impact on the interwar financial period. In addition to being an influential academic voice in British monetary policy, Keynes had a tangible impact, for example in leading the British delegation at the 1946 Bretton Woods conference. Hence, his essays and correspondence were invaluable in analysing the policies, orthodoxies and major events of this period.

Methodology

My role involved proofreading the manuscript for its suitability to undergraduate students and sorting Keynes’ essays and communications for their future use both in the project and for related research. Methods for proofing were primarily the correction of small errors, such as grammar, and suggesting areas that could be further simplified or explained for undergraduate students.

After proofing the original and then revised manuscripts, I undertook the sorting and cleaning of Keynes’ documents. An automatic PDF transcriber was used to convert these scanned collections into plain text in order that they could be more practically useful. Unlike PDF scans, plain text allows for text searches and easier division of pages into individual documents. I therefore sifted through scanned collections of correspondence and essays, splitting and categorizing them. This required the synthesis of relevant editorial elements and documents as well as the ‘cleaning’ of quantitative elements – such as tables - that did not transcribe correctly. An understanding of each documents’ content and context was required, which necessitated constant referral to the original scanned collections. By the conclusion of the project, over 1,000 pages of scanned material had been sifted, sorted and cleaned.

Results and some Conclusions

Overall, I hope that my contribution was a valuable one, as the undertaking of research on a topic such as this is immense. An enormous amount of information must be sorted and analysed in order to obtain conclusions as to the views and concerns of major figures like Keynes: for example, a single volume of Keynes’ work and correspondence contained more than 140 individual documents. I hope that the results of this archiving will be useful not only for this project, but also for future research on related topics.

Reading these documents provided interesting insights into Keynes’ views: for instance, on the merits of proportional income tax as seen in the US in 1917 relative to Britain’s taxation system. I found that archival work of this nature often reveals nuggets of information which – given the limited depth of an undergraduate degree – is otherwise not discovered before a Postgraduate degree.

Aside from the academic and practical conclusions of this project, working for the US Centre and for Professor Morrison has been an invaluable experience. The chance to undertake archival responsibilities and engage more deeply with political economy research not only provided me with further insight into academia, but also revealed my own preferred research methods and interests. The opportunity given to me by the US Centre has given me greater confidence in my ability to partake in, and contribute to, such research projects in the future. Though this year’s cohorts’ time at the US Centre was disrupted by the pandemic and lockdown, the staff continued to be supportive and present throughout. I cannot recommend the programme highly enough as a result, and I only wish my time in it had been longer.

Please note that this report gives the views and findings of the Undergraduate Research Assistant, and may not necessarily reflect those of their faculty supervisor, the US Centre or the London School of Economics.