Description
This paper examines Britain's pivotal shift from free trade to protectionism following World War One, focusing on Winston Churchill's role as a key agent of ideational and policy change. Drawing on archival documents and contemporary sources, I demonstrate how individual beliefs and strategic ideas shaped major economic policy transformations at a critical juncture in international political economy. Churchill presents a compelling case study for understanding the interplay between ideas, material interests, and institutional constraints in trade policy formation. The paper makes three theoretical contributions to IPE scholarship. First, it demonstrates that belief plays a vastly larger role in political economy than conventional analyses acknowledge, particularly during periods of uncertainty. Churchill's 1925 decision to return Britain to the Gold Standard at pre-war parity exemplifies how policy makers' beliefs about credibility, stability, and international order can override technocratic advice and shape both currency regimes and trade policy trajectories. The resulting overvaluation and uncompetitiveness made protectionist measures increasingly necessary, demonstrating how currency regime choices constrain subsequent trade policy options. Second, it shows how pragmatic realism, rather than rigid ideology, allowed Churchill to reconcile his commitment to free trade principles with support for Imperial Preference and protectionism when Britain's relative power position demanded adaptation. Third, it reveals how imperial sentiment and economic self-interest were actively constructed and deployed by policy elites to legitimate policy reversals. This case illuminates broader theoretical questions about how ideas matter in IPE: not as epiphenomenal justifications for material interests, but as frameworks that define strategic options, constitute interests, and enable political coalitions across periods of systemic transition.
