ABSTRACT
In the face of the cataclysms of the 1920s and 1930s, debates about the reorganization of the international economic order were closely entwined with the elusive concept of capitalism. This chapter elucidates the interrelations between perceptions of crises and designs of economic governance. Controversies about the flaws of economic liberalism and the search for alternative governance defined the period. In the industrial world, views on international economic relations centered on controlling national economies. Industrial states, moreover, conceived of colonies or quasi-colonies as controllable support areas, placing them outside the realm of modernity, while observers in these regions challenged such views. The chapter first explores the thinking of academics, state officials, and international civil servants to trace links between economic crises, national political cultures, and conceptions of development. This narrative subsequently informs an argument about the characteristics of the “economic interwar,” its roots before 1914, and its legacies beyond the 1930s.
