The global agricultural crisis and British diplomacy in the league of nations in 1931

Abstract

This article examines the genesis and ultimate failure of a lending programme sponsored by the League of Nations to help farmers in central and eastern Europe. This project had strong initial support from several different groups of British officials, for whom it advanced a policy of European engagement. Its short history reveals the complex ways in which the global agricultural crisis influenced British foreign policy during the critical watershed year of 1931. The precipitous decline in world crop prices starting in 1929 gave a strong boost to the movement for empire unity and simultaneously prompted new calls in the League for solidarity between European food producers and consumers. These competing demands decisively constrained efforts to preserve Britain's role in European economic and security politics during the onset of the Great Depression.