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FINANCIAL SPECULATION, POLITICAL RISKS, AND LEGAL COMPLICATIONS: BRITISH COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY IN THE BALKANS, c. 1906–1914*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2012

MIKA SUONPÄÄ
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Abstract

Before 1914, a more intimate relationship started to develop between overseas commercial activity and foreign policy. This occurred as a consequence of the politicization of international business relations that came about when other great powers began increasingly to challenge Britain's global commercial, political, and imperial supremacy. Britain had traditionally followed a laissez-faire line when it came to supporting or protecting British overseas business enterprise. In the mid-1880s, Britain was compelled to review its policy. After this, the British government was prepared to offer limited assistance to British firms, but this often took place only in regions which were significant in terms of overall policy interest, including Turkey, Iran, and China. This article examines British commercial diplomacy in the Balkans, a region which has not received much attention from historians in this framework. British commercial diplomacy there followed the general line of limited intervention and support was offered mostly on legal grounds. Local political troubles and great power politics also played a role in diplomatic decision-making as did negative cultural perceptions, but to a considerably lesser degree. In most cases, the British government refrained from supporting British business enterprise in the Balkans on account of fears about financial speculation.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 97 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank the anonymous referees and Professor Robin Pearson for their valuable comments and suggestions.

References

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33 New York Times, 22 Feb. 1913; London Gazette, 22 Oct. 1915; R. Paget to E. Grey, 12 July 1911, Belgrade, TNA FO 368/580.

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57 Walton, Gooddy & Cripps to Foreign Office, London, 6 May 1911, TNA FO 368/519. See also Vulcan Foundry Ltd to Board of Trade, 26 Feb. 1907, Warrington, TNA FO 368/126; Kynoch Ltd to under secretary of state for foreign affairs, 27 Jan. 1910, Birmingham, TNA FO 368/456; Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd to J. Whitehead, 14 Mar. 1910, Birmingham, TNA FO 368/456; Walton, Gooddy & Cripps to Foreign Office, London, 6 May 1911, TNA FO 368/519.

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61 See Economist, 5 Oct. 1915.

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63 McLean, ‘Finance’, p. 304.

64 National Cotton Spinning Company of Bulgaria, TNA BT 31/31524/52646; Farrar & Co. to E. Grey, 8 Mar. 1909, Manchester, TNA FO 368/278; Palairet, Balkan economies, p. 272.

65 I thank Dr Martin Ivanov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, for these very useful biographical notes on Bebis and Simeonov.

66 Farrar & Co. to E. Grey, 8 Mar. 1909, Manchester, TNA FO 368/278.

67 Berend and Ranki, Economic development, p. 88.

68 For further details about this affair, see Farrar & Co.'s correspondence with the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade in TNA FO 368/278, 368/394, 368/518 between May 1909 and Dec. 1911. See also Palairet, Balkan economies, p. 338.