Gary B. Magee

The global and local: Explaining migrant remittance flows in the English-Speaking world, 1880-1914

This article uses money order data to examine the determinants of British migrant remittances prior to 1914. Using panel data and cointegration analysis, it provides evidence of four distinct types of remittance behavior, lending support to Lucas and Starks theory that remittances are driven by an implicit contract between remitter and remittee. The relative strengths of these different forms of remittance varied across the English-speaking world, with the largest differences occurring between migrants residing in America and those in the self-governing dominions. The explanation for these differences is seen to lie in the distinctive nature of British emigration to America.

Manufacturing and technological change

THE SHAPE AND COURSE OF BRITISH MANUFACTURING The global economic leadership that Britain enjoyed in the nineteenth century had its foundations in the nation’s unprecedented industrial capability. To many Victorians and Edwardians this was a fact of life; it followed almost inexorably that should the uniqueness of that capability ever be lost, Britain’s international pre-eminence would also be forfeited and decline ensue. The progress of manufacturing was seen as pivotal to Britain’s economic fate. To a large extent, this is also how Britain’s decline has been cast in much of the economic history literature, where industrial decline and economic decline are taken as synonymous. As the manufacturing sector was a major employer that provided the vast majority of Britain’s exports and was where the full brunt of the growing international competition was felt, it seems a reasonable focal point for the historical analysis of Britain’s relative economic decline. To some, the significance of manufacturing, because of its dynamic properties and integral place in the process of technological change, goes well beyond the size of its static contribution to national product. In this view, both economic growth and productivity are seen to be crucially determined by the expansion of the manufacturing sector (Kaldor 1966). Whether such a relationship applies in the late Victorian and Edwardian period is investigated later in the chapter, but it should be noted here that, despite the growing foreign challenge, manufacturing’s place in the British economy was not in fact contracting. Rather, as Table 4.1 illustrates, its share of national output and the capital stock actually grew over the second half of the nineteenth century, while its share of employment remained constant.

`Lines of credit, debts of obligation¿: migrant remittances to Britain, c.1875¿1913

Britain of the nineteenth century was a net recipient of migrant remittances. Surprisingly little, however, is known about the flow of such funds to the UK. This article addresses this hiatus in several ways. First, it provides an account of the main mechanisms by which remittances were transferred in this period. Second, it presents new estimates of the volume of remittances flowing to Britain between 1875 and 1913, and, in doing so, offers a comparison of remittance patterns between different Anglophone societies. Third, it assesses the significance of remittances for their recipients in the UK. The article ends by considering the implications of all of the above for the way in which historians are currently trying to formulate the concept of a ‘British world’.

The Importance of Being British? Imperial Factors and the Growth of British Exports, 1870-1960

Between 1870 and the 1950s, the volume and proportion of British exports to the Empire and Commonwealth grew steadily. Many have attributed this trend to non-market advantages allegedly rooted in imperial rule and the inherent Britishness of these markets. Quantitative methods show, however, that in most periods, other considerations, most notably the economic growth of the importing markets, were of much greater importance in explaining the pattern of British exports.

Faces of Opposition: Juvenile Resistance, High Treason, and the People's Court in Nazi Germany

Analysis of the sixty-nine juveniles tried for high treason before the Peoples Court in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, based on the available court records, finds that juvenile resistance in Nazi Germany possessed a distinct form and character; it was a phenomenon rather than an exceptional act. Juvenile resisters charged with high treason were typically working-class males of German ethnicity, motivated primarily by left-wing and religious beliefs, acting in small groups free of significant adult supervision and direction. Examination of the verdicts and sentencing of these juvenile resisters sheds light on how the Nazi justice system reacted to such serious internal resistance from its young.

Sentencing, Judicial Discretion, and Political Prisoners in Pre-War Nazi Germany

The tools of econometric analysis and inferential statistics reveal that senior Nazi-era judges in pre-war Germany exhibited statistically significant levels of discretion in their sentencing of individuals convicted of high treason or treason. In fact, some of these judges, though appointed to the People’s Court to serve the Nazi state, were inclined to show relative leniency, within certain political limits, when taking into account the characteristics, backgrounds, affiliations, actions, and experiences of those whom they convicted. A modicum of judicial autonomy can co-exist with dictatorship so long as it enhances the efficiency of the courts and does not impugn the regime.

Impacts and Implications

Since the end of the Second World War, historical research on German and Austrian resistance has steadily expanded, deepened and enrichened our understanding of the phenomenon. Like all healthy fields of research, though, mysteries and gaps not only persist but are constantly being opened up. This book has sought to add to that accumulated knowledge by attempting to tease further insights from the archives with quantitative analysis. Its results have both cast light on a number of important existing debates and identified new areas of study that call for greater research. The various threads discovered in earlier chapters are brought together in this concluding chapter, and some of the key implications of our findings for the understanding of serious resistance activities in Nazi Germany are discussed. One new thing that emerges from this analysis is a framework that for the first time allows the objective evaluation of the impact of serious resistance to be made, an approach which with simple modifications could be easily extended to the study of dissent, opposition and nonconformity.

South Africa in the Australian mirror: per capita real GDP in the Cape Colony, Natal, Victoria, and New South Wales, 1861–1909

This article compares the real GDP per capita of the Cape Colony and Natal between 1861 and 1909 with that of Australias two most developed colonies, Victoria and New South Wales. Estimates of European and non‐European GDP per capita for both South African colonies are also provided. Together, this information allows for the first time an evaluation of the growth performance of these important parts of the South African economy in the colonial era. The article concludes that South African performance in this period was stronger than often assumed and that by the beginning of the twentieth century European South Africans, now more fully integrated into a British World economy, operated at a level of GDP per capita that matched and in some places may have exceeded that of Australians. Non‐European South Africans, however, did not share in these same advances.

Negotiating a Preferential Trading Agreement

Presenting a blend of economics and law, this book provides unique insights as well as practical guidance for negotiators considering major issues on the agendas of bilateral and regional preferential trading agreements (PTAs).

Hitler's Judges: Ideological Commitment and the Death Penalty in Nazi Germany

To what extent do judges in courts in authoritarian regimes merely implement the will of the state? What determines judges’ behaviour in such contexts? We address these questions by examining the role of judicial policy preferences in influencing whether judges in Nazi Germany sentenced defendants charged with serious political offences - treason and high treason - to death. Our findings lend support to the attitudinal model of judicial decision-making. Specifically, we find that judicial policy preferences, measured by the depth of the ideological commitment of the judge to the Nazi Party worldview, were an important determinant of whether judges imposed the death sentence. We also find that judges who were more ideologically committed to the Nazi Party were more likely to impose the death sentence on those who belonged to the most organised political opposition groups to the Nazi state, those whose acts of treason or high treason involved violent resistance against the state, and those with characteristics to which Nazism was intolerant.