The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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colonies still tended to see economic advantage in retaining an imperial link.
Britain provided both
a ready source for colonial needs and a convenient outlet
for colonial products. India, South Africa and
New Zealand looked almost
automatically to Britain as their first major supplier.

In
any case, British traders began to realize that economic expansion does
not necessarily have to depend on
creation of a territorial or political empire. It
was not necessary for the land of economic exploitation
to be formally annexed
to the British crown. In fact, many traders and investors of the United
Kingdom
thought that absence of full-scale official British control was more practical. This
is
because the latter often involved bureaucratic interference and even restriction,
because the authorities
would impose control and regulations on the not always
lawful activities of the traders.

Often
the economic expansionists were satisfied with a minimal British
presence, just sufficient to preserve
order so that trade and investment could take
place safely. They agreed with a sphere of British
influence if European powers
were thinking of competition, particularly in the economic field; or the
British
traders and investors were ready to accept a British consul if a local ruler was
proving
obstructive to their economic efforts; or occasionally the British
economic interests would ask for a
gun-boat to be sent in, to threaten and perhaps
punish a difficult local group, especially if the latter
had turned against the British
economic presence and become destructive of British property and
lives.

The
traders and investors preserved existing economic links with
traditional markets in Europe and the United
States as well as of course the
colonies, but on the other hand became more concerned with seeking
new
economic advantages in areas hitherto outside the British trading-zone. As the
nineteenth
century reached its end British economic influence spread further
afield, into the far east and Latin
America, creating an ‘informal empire’.

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