The Economic Grip on Britain

Abstract

Economic strength is, of course, the most crucial element of economic power, or at least the most important of the necessary conditions for its existence and, on the face of it, the British government had a massive advantage over South Africa in this respect during the central post-war period. The first indicator which seems to bear out this point is provided by a comparison between the two countries in terms of their absolute wealth and the sheer size of their foreign economic transactions, that is to say, by a comparison between them in terms of their respective importance as agents in the world economy.