British Imperialism and the Making of Colonial Currency Systems

Wadan Narsey is a former Professor of Economics at The University of the South Pacific. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, and at Swinburne University, Australia. He is a former Fiji parliamentarian, a commentator on the political economy of Fiji and the Pacific and a regular columnist for the Fiji Times. He has a personal website: NarseyOnFiji.

Narsey offers us an original and pioneering investigation of how the British state regulated gold, silver and paper as media of exchange, debt, and savings in colonies, from simple management of coinage to the emergence of the currency board, to become a critical part and the heart of the British Empire. Appearing in the fascinating story are privateers in the eighteenth-century West Indies with gold standards based on the slave economy and contraband from the Spanish main, Keynes's work on the currency of the Raj, and twentieth-century debates about the colonial money supply and economic development. The common theme is that the economic interests of metropolitan Britain were almost always given primacy in the administration of colonial money. The book is a valuable addition to the economic history of both the British empire and of globalization.' - Professor Richard Drayton, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History, Kings College, London 'Based on extensive archival research, Professor Narsey shows that imperial priorities took precedence over native desires for economic development in dependent colonies throughout the history of the British Empire. This was an undesirable, but fully intended, consequence of imperial financial innovations in the British colonies, including the currency boards of Hong Kong and Singapore whose later success came only when British political control was lifted.' - Professor Larry Neal, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 'This is an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge on the history of colonial currency systems.' - Chibuike Uche, Senior Researcher, African Studies Centre, Leiden

• 1. The accepted history of British colonial currency systems and the key questions.- 2 . Currency policies for Britain (1698-1893): adoption of the Gold Standard and rejection of silver and bimetallism.- 3. Colonial currency policies (1600-1893): from international to localized currencies.-4. India 1893-1912: conflicts and imperial resolution.- 5. Straits Settlements 1893 – 1912: the transition from India to West Africa.- 6 . The establishment of the West African Currency Board: 1893-1912.- 7. Conflicts over the administration of colonial reserves in London (1927-1957), academic criticisms and imperial responses.- 8. Reassessment of the currency board debate.- 9. Currency and monetary policies in white settler colonies.- 10. Conclusion.