British Empire Economic Conference

1932 British Empire Economic Conference Imperial Economic Conference
Host country	Canada
Date	21 July 1932– 18 August 1932
Venue(s)	House of Commons chamber,Parliament Hill
Cities	Ottawa
Participants	9
Chair	R. B. Bennett (Canadian Prime Minister)
Follows	1930
Precedes	1937
Key points
Imperial preference,tariffs, monetary standards

Postage stamp, Canada, 1932: commemorative overprint for Ottawa Conference.

TheBritish Empire Economic Conference(also known as theImperial Economic ConferenceorOttawa Conference) was a 1932 conference of British colonies and dominions held to discuss theGreat Depression.It was held between 21 July and 20 August inOttawa.

The conference saw the group admit the failure of thegold standardand abandon attempts to return to it. The meeting also worked to establish a zone of limited tariffs within theBritish Empire,but with high tariffs with the rest of the world. This was called "Imperial preference"or" Empire Free-Trade "on the principle of" home producers first, empire producers second, and foreign producers last ". The result of the conference was a series of bilateral agreements that would last for at least 5 years.This abandonment of open free trade led to a split in the BritishNational Governmentcoalition: theOfficial LiberalsunderHerbert Samuelleft the Government, but theNational LiberalsunderSir John Simonremained.

The conference was especially notable for its adoption ofKeynesianideas such as loweringinterest rates,increasing the money supply, and expanding government spending.

Heads of delegations

The conference was hosted by theGovernor General of Canada,The Earl of Bessborough,representing KingGeorge Vand included the Prime Ministers and other leaders of the Empire and members of their respective cabinets:

Nation	Name	Portfolio
Canada	R. B. Bennett	Prime Minister(Chairman)
Australia	Stanley Bruce	Assistant Treasurer of Australia
India	SirAtul Chandra Chatterjee	Viceroy's representative
Irish Free State	Seán T. O'Kelly	Vice-President
Newfoundland	Frederick C. Alderdice	Prime Minister
New Zealand	Gordon Coates	Minister of Public Works, Minister in charge of Unemployment
Southern Rhodesia	Howard Unwin Moffat	Prime Minister
South Africa	Nicolaas Havenga	Finance Minister
United Kingdom	Stanley Baldwin	Lord President of the Council

See also

• Import Duties Act 1932
• Imperial Conference

Sources

• British Empire Economic Conference,Time magazine,25 July 1932
• Barry Eichengreen and Douglas A. Irwin, "Trade blocs, currency blocs and the reorientation of world trade in the 1930s",Journal of International Economics,Volume 38, Issues 1–2, February 1995, Pages 1–24
• Robert A. MacKay, "Imperial Economics at Ottawa",Pacific Affairs,Vol. 5, No. 10 (Oct. 1932), pp. 873–885
• Maxwell Slutz Stewart,The Ottawa conference,Foreign Policy Association,incorporated, 1932
• "Imperial Economic Conference, Ottawa, 1932. Summary of Proceedings".Journals of the House of Representatives.Session I-II Appendix, A-06. New Zealand. 1932.
• Potter, Pitman B. (1932). "The British Imperial Economic Conference".American Journal of International Law.26(4): 811–813.