<論説>アトリー労働党政権の対外経済政策と植民地

Abstract

一九四七年、経済危機に直面したイギリスでは植民地資源への期待が高まった。さらには、外相ベヴィンの西欧同盟構想を代表に、植民地大規模開発とその資源動員を、大国としての存立の危機に直面したイギリスの世界戦略の基盤に据える構想が登場した。しかしアトリー政権の植民地経済・開発政策の実態は、開発に必要な物資を供給するのではなく、貿易と金融への統制により、植民地が既存の輸出で獲得したドルを吸い上げることに終始する消極的なものとなった。ただし、植民地経済がスターリングエリアのドル収支に対する貢献の度合いを唯一の尺度として位置づけられてゆく過程を、植民地開発を担うイギリスの能力の限界として捉えるのでは十分でない。重要なのは、戦後再建と福祉国家建設を進めたい労働党首脳と、イギリスの経済的地位の復活を目指す大蔵省とが、ドル収支改善それ自体がイギリスの生き残りの鍵であるとの認識のもと進めた対外経済政策が背景にあったことを踏まえて、アトリー政権の植民地経済・開発政策を理解することなのである。

In 1945, the Attlee Cabinet thought that after a reconstruction period Britain as a major world power should promote a multilateral international trade system. They also thought that Britain should foster colonial welfare and economic progress for British prestige. The first eighteen months of the Labour Government's life provided little evidence of systematic exploitation of colonial resources to solve British economic difficulties. But in 1947, confronted with the economic embarrassment of a winter fuel crisis and a convertibility fiasco in summer, the Attlee government sought to ease its economic problems by drawing on colonial resources. Especially the Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, worried about British dependence on America and was Captured by the imperial option based on large-scale colonial development. In January 1948, Bevin announced his grand design for a union of western European states sustained by a system of Euro-African development. He thought that Britain could re-emerge as an independent world power by the leading the "Western Union". His idea to boost British power through large-scale colonial development was supported by back-benchers of both parties. In reality Britain did not deliver sufficient capital equipment to carry out their colonial development plans. On the contrary, the colonies were hit with severe controls on trade and could not use their earnings, particularly dollars, for imports and development schemes. They sent dollars to London in exchange for "frozen" sterling balances. After the 1947 sterling crisis, the Attlee government defined the first priority of foreign economic policy as the attainment of 'dollar viability. For Treasury officials, the attainment of dollar viability was the essential step in restoring Britain's position in the international economy along with the US. For Labour Ministers, dollars were indispensable to sustain the welfare state and full employment. The Treasury-led foreign economic policy dominated the Attlee government's colonial economic and development policy. Promoting large-scale colonial development was not desirable because such development schemes would necessitate supplying commodities to the colonies instead of exporting them to areas that used dollars. What was important for Labour ministers and the Treasury was building up the dollar-surplus colonial economy through the sterling area system and physical controls in order to enable Britain to take its place in a multilateral trading world and to sustain the pound sterling as an international currency. As Bevin's grand design was fading, this dollar-surplus colonial economy proved its worth.