Britain's External Economic Policy in the Early 1950s: The Historical Significance of operation Robot

In February 1952 the British Cabinet met to consider implementinga series of proposals that would have transformed the postwarinternational political economy. The policies, code-named OperationRobot, centred on introducing sterling convertibility on a floatingexchange rate allied to the blocking of sterling balances andthe reopening of the London gold market on budget day, 11 March.To assess whether the defeat of Robot is of historical significancethis article analyses the likely impact of the plan on the internationalpolitical economy in the 1950s looking in particular at itseffect on the Sterling Area, Europe, and the United States.It concludes that the plan would have changed fundamentallythe existing international order leading most probably to theclosure of the European Payments Union and the InternationalMonetary Fund. Robot would also have undermined Franco-Germanco-operation and provided support for the British conceptionof European collaboration with sterling at the heart of an enlargedCommonwealth/European trading area.     

THE ORIGINS OF ROMANO-BRITISH SMALL TOWNS

Summary. Romano-British urban origins have all too frequently been seen in terms of simple monocausal explanations, emphasising the role of purely military factors at the expense of the importance now attached to pre-Roman settlement nucleation. This article seeks to explore the question of small town origins and early development in the light of this wider perspective. It attempts to demonstrate that the period after AD 43 saw two overlapping and competing systems, one focused on pre-existing sites, the other on the new communications network, each with their own requirements and each with varying regional application and importance. Incorporation within the prevailing new order is shown to be more vital to urban development than pre-Roman or fort origins in isolation.