The business and the politics of decolonization: the British experience in the twentieth century 1

Historians are increasingly interested in the role of British business in the ending of the British empire. A succession of books, articles, and theses based on an interrogation of newly available business and government papers has examined business-government relations during the decolonization of particular territories. ² In surveying the subject literature of business, government, and decolonization, this article synthesizes a set of currently disparate case studies and provides a general assessment of the roles of British entrepreneurs, firms, and commercial associations in the process of retreat from empire.