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A soft touch? British industry, empire markets, and the self‐governing dominions, c.1870–1914[Note 1. We thank Mike Collins, John Darwin, Sarah Lenton, David ...]
Author(s) -
Thompson Andrew,
Magee Gary
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00266.x
Subject(s) - empire , preference , meaning (existential) , colonialism , british empire , economics , economic history , sociology , economy , market economy , history , political science , law , philosophy , microeconomics , epistemology
The belief that Britain's empire markets were soft is well entrenched in the literature. It is, however, a belief that has been largely untested. Indeed, the literature does not even offer an explicit definition of softness. This article attempts to fill this gap by discussing the meaning of the term and then posing the question whether between 1870 and 1914 Britain's fastest growing markets—Australasia and Canada—can in fact reasonably be labelled soft, as has often been assumed. The article concludes that the demand for British imports in these markets was driven more by considerations of income and price than by colonial sentiment or preference.