British Relative Economic Decline

Abstract

The chapter will provide an overview of the political economy of Britain during the first half of the 20th century, focusing on Britain’s position in the global capitalist economy and its continued relative economic decline. The chapter will also provide historical accounts of both the Sterling Area and Malaya. This chapter intends to provide a historical background to, and so contextualise, the thesis’ main narrative in the subsequent chapters. In so doing, it is the intention of this chapter to avoid the periodisation of history, as well as to illustrate that the nature of the post-war relationship between Britain and Malaya finds its origins in Britain’s relative economic decline.