Last modified: 2016-06-03
Abstract
Keynes revealed three aspects in his activities for the postwar world order planning in the 1940s – internationalist as a planner, pragmatist during the negotiations, and a defender of the British Empire interests. This report is to show this, based on the three papers which examine, respectively, a commodity problem, a relief and reconstruction problem, and an international monetary system. (Evaluation of his creative plans and their present significance, which is another theme of this project, is to be left for another occasion).
At first Keynes designed and put forward plans filled with the spirit of internationalism. As the political and economic situations changed, however, he came to show an aspect of a pragmatist, setting a priority on, among others, protecting the interests of the British Empire as follows.
(1) Commodity problem – Keynes put forward the Fifth version of International Buffer Plan (April 1942) filled with internationalism.
However, the buffer stock plan was to make a series of
transformation due to criticism from various governmental departments. The essential transmutation is that in the drafts following the Fifth version restriction on output was increasingly emphasized to such a degree that they lost the first principle which featured the Fifth version.
We cannot find any document to show Keynes’s dissatisfaction with this transformation. Keynes seems to have worked rather as a sort of political pragmatist.
(2) Relief and reconstruction problem – In October 1941 Keynes put forward the Central Relief and Reconstruction Fund (CRRF) Plan filled with internationalism. In February 1942, however, he came to adopt a pragmatic line mainly dependent on the (existing) Lend-Lease, giving up the CRRF Plan because of an abrupt economic deterioration of the British Empire.
(3) International monetary system – The negotiation between the UK and the US started with a face-off of, respectively, the ICU plan and the SF plan (Oct.23, 1942). However, the initiative was gripped by the US, as is found in June, 1943 which saw Keynes try to integrate the two plans based on the SF plan.
The British tried to incorporate a feature of the ICU plan into the SF plan by monetizing unitas, but in vain. Then, Keynes came to justify the SF plan, stating that it was more crucial to secure a financial aid from the US. Here we see some pragmatism.