Chris Grocott
University of Leicester, School of Management, Faculty Member
- University of Leicester, Business School, Faculty Memberadd
- History, European History, Social History, Marxism, Historiography, British History, and 32 moreHistory of Sexuality, British Empire, Fascism, Spanish History, Class, History Portuguese and Spanish, Modern British History, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Social Movements (History), Commonwealth History, Labor History (History), Gibraltar, Ideology, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), The Global Political Economy, British Imperialism, Colonial Administration, Business History, Economic History, History of Economic Thought, Neoliberalism, Political Ideology, Hayek, Friedrich Hayek, Chicago School of Economics, Laissez-faire Capitalism: the economic and political system for individual freedom, Imperial History, The Road to Serfdom, Labour history, History of Anarchism, Gambling Studies, and Political Economyedit
- I am a lecturer in Management and Economic History at the University of Leicester School of Business.edit
Introduction: The Continuing Imperialism of Free Trade, Jo Grady and Chris Grocott. Part 1: The Imperialism of Free Trade in Historical Context. 1. Gladstone, Suakin and the Imperialism of British Liberalism, James Fargher. 2. Spain and... more
Introduction: The Continuing Imperialism of Free Trade, Jo Grady and Chris Grocott. Part 1: The Imperialism of Free Trade in Historical Context. 1. Gladstone, Suakin and the Imperialism of British Liberalism, James Fargher. 2. Spain and Britain’s Informal Empire, Nick Sharman. 3. Economic Imperialism in Cuba, 1898-2017: Hegemony and Embargo, Adam Burns. Part 2: Periphery-Metropolitan Relationships. 4. Imperialism and the Military-Peasantry Complex, Gibson Burrell. 5. The Good Friday Agreement and Britain’s ‘Deep State’: Britain’s Long Goodbye and Speedy Return, Paul Stewart and Tommy McKearney. Part 3: Supra-National Agents of Imperialism. 6. Policy as a Tool of Economic Imperialism?, Martin Quinn. 7. The Role of Troika in the Greek Economic Crisis and its Social and Political Consequences, Costas Eleftheriou and Orestis Papadopoulos. 8. Lessons from Marikana? South Africa’s Sub-Imperialism and the Rise of Blockadia, Jasper Finkeldey. 9. Chile's trade policies in the context of US contemporary imperialism: The Free Trade Agenda and the loss of National Autonomy, José Miguel Ahumada. Part 4: Financialisation and the Continuing Imperialism of Free Trade. 10. Imperialism, Dirty Money Centres and the Financial Elite, Matthew Higgins, Veronica Morino and Nigel Iyer. 11. Commissioning Imperialism: EU Trade Deals Under Neoliberalism, Mark Dearn.
Research Interests: Policy Analysis/Policy Studies, Liberalism, South African Politics and Society, Spanish History, European Union, and 12 moreNeoliberalism, Chile, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), British Imperialism, Cuban History, Sudan, Greece, Imperialism, Northern Ireland and the Troubles, Peasants, Tax Havens, and Colonialism and Imperialism
This modern history of Gibraltar updates and enhances scholarship on the Rock's history by bringing together the authors' extensive archival research and developments in the secondary literature surrounding British Gibraltar. Central to... more
This modern history of Gibraltar updates and enhances scholarship on the Rock's history by bringing together the authors' extensive archival research and developments in the secondary literature surrounding British Gibraltar. Central to its narrative is an examination of the development of a Gibraltarian community amidst Britain's imperial rise and decline and Anglo-Spanish diplomatic vicissitudes. Gibraltar: A Modern History is the first twenty-first century history of Gibraltar to tie together not only the development of a Gibraltarian community, but also the way in which this community has been shaped by wider forces in the modern world.
Research Interests: Social Identity, Identity (Culture), Nationalism, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Cultural Identity, and 21 moreBritish Foreign Policy, Identity Politics (Political Science), National Identity, Nationalism And State Building, Gibraltar, Spain (Mediterranean Studies), British Empire, Citizenship and Identity, British Imperialism, History of Nationalism, 20th Century Spain, Spain (History), History of Nationalism and Nation-Building, Contemporary History of Spain, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, Spain, Spain under Franco, Political Identity, British Foreign and Colonial Policy, Gibraltarian Identities, and British Foreign Office
This article examines labour organisation in Gibraltar and its hinterland from c.1914 to 1921. It demonstrates that the traditionally strong links which had existed between organisations in Gibraltar and neighbouring Spain, links based... more
This article examines labour organisation in Gibraltar and its hinterland from c.1914 to 1921. It demonstrates that the traditionally strong links which had existed between organisations in Gibraltar and neighbouring Spain, links based upon a shared belief in anarchist ideas and practices, had, by 1921, broken down due to the adoption of gradualist and constitutionalist politics and industrial relations by workers on the Rock. Two principle agents drove this change. First, in 1919, the British Workers’ Union established a branch in Gibraltar which successfully worked to establish itself as principle negotiator and representative of workers on the Rock. Second, a reforming governor in Gibraltar undertook to open up political spaces in Gibraltar which offered the potential to work with, rather than against, the state in the colony. By the end of the period, anarchism, and anarchist ideas, was not extinguished in Gibraltar, but they would never again serve as the inspiration for industrial and political campaigns on the Rock, much to the delight of both Gibraltarian employers and the British colonial authorities. This case-study invites further consideration of how British style trade union activity in the empire displaced indigenous forms of organising, a subject which has heretofore received scant attention.
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Herein we examine recommendations made in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the Government of Gibraltar, regarding Gibraltar’s future economic prospects. In keeping with Hayek’s ideas in The Road to Serfdom, he proposed reducing state-led... more
Herein we examine recommendations made in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek
for the Government of Gibraltar, regarding Gibraltar’s future economic
prospects. In keeping with Hayek’s ideas in The Road to Serfdom, he
proposed reducing state-led economic planning in Gibraltar alongside
proposals to lift restrictions upon the operation of a free market in rents
and labour. Hayek’s proposals were rejected by both governments in
Gibraltar and London because they were not compatible with the
economic planning of colonial economies, inspired by Keynes, and
provision of welfare systems in the empire inspired by Beveridge, both
dominant ideas during the mid-1940s in government circles.
for the Government of Gibraltar, regarding Gibraltar’s future economic
prospects. In keeping with Hayek’s ideas in The Road to Serfdom, he
proposed reducing state-led economic planning in Gibraltar alongside
proposals to lift restrictions upon the operation of a free market in rents
and labour. Hayek’s proposals were rejected by both governments in
Gibraltar and London because they were not compatible with the
economic planning of colonial economies, inspired by Keynes, and
provision of welfare systems in the empire inspired by Beveridge, both
dominant ideas during the mid-1940s in government circles.
Research Interests: Gibraltar, British Empire, Colonization (British Empire), History of the British Empire, The British Empire in the Mediterranean, and 17 moreHayek, Keynesian Economics, Friedrich Hayek, Population Studies, Beveridge, Neoliberalism Vs Keynesism, Gibraltarian Identities, John Maynard Keynes, Straits of Gibraltar, HISTORIA DE GIBRALTAR Y SU CAMPO, Hayek Versus Keynes, Friederich A. Hayek, William Beveridge Welfare State, Beveridge Welfare State, F.A. Hayek, Friedrich August von Hayek, and Hunting In Colonil India
This article is the first to investigate the growth of anarchist ideology and tactics in Gibraltar and the surrounding Spanish region, the Campo de Gibraltar, in the period 1890–1902. We draw upon hitherto unused material from both The... more
This article is the first to investigate the growth of anarchist ideology and tactics in Gibraltar and the surrounding Spanish region, the Campo de Gibraltar, in the period 1890–1902. We draw upon hitherto unused material from both The National Archives in London and the Gibraltar Government Archives. By doing so, we demonstrate that during this period Gibraltarian and Spanish workers came together, not only to defend and advance their interests by direct action, such as strikes and attacks on employers, but also to advance educational and social causes too. Indeed, by 1898–1899, the appeal of this movement was so strong that an attempt by the British Social Democratic Federation to establish a more constitutionalist approach to industrial relations failed. By 1902, the power of anarchist movements and tactics concerned employers in Gibraltar, so greatly that they engineered a lockout – styled a general strike by local workers – and successfully smashed the organising power of the local movement. Meanwhile, on the Spanish side of the frontier, a massacre engineered by the local Spanish authorities resulted in the deaths of a number of activists and a hiatus in the movement that would last until the Great War of 1914–1918.
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This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. Hayek’s subsequent reports suggested the reorganisation of the... more
This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. Hayek’s subsequent reports suggested the reorganisation of the state-regulated Gibraltar housing market in line with free market principles designed to relocate the colony’s working class population into neighbouring Spain. However, rather than freeing Gibraltarians from the evils of state planning, as identified in The Road to Serfdom, published earlier in the year, this proposal would, rather, have delivered them into the dictatorship of General Franco. Not only was Franco’s regime brutal, it was also one which practiced autarkic economic policies, virtually identical to those which Hayek maligned in The Road to Serfdom. In sum, Hayek’s free market proposals would have benefited Gibraltar’s landlords at the expense of the liberty of the majority of the civilian population.
Research Interests: Spanish History, Gibraltar, Neoliberalism, Neoliberal ideologies, 20th Century Spain, and 12 moreSpain (History), Spanish politics, Hayek, Spain, Spain under Franco, Friedrich Hayek, Neoliberalism Vs Keynesism, Gibraltarian Identities, Historia del Campo de Gibraltar, Campo De Gibraltar, Friederich A. Hayek, and The Road to Serfdom
This paper examines capitalist imperialism both in contemporary and in historical perspective. To do so, it draws on the classic 1953 work of the historians of British imperialism John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson and combines it with... more
This paper examines capitalist imperialism both in contemporary and in historical perspective. To do so, it draws on the classic 1953 work of the historians of British imperialism John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson and combines it with the Marxist understandings of contemporary capitalism offered by, for example, Alex Callinicos, Terry Eagleton, and David Harvey. By doing so, continuities in the operation of capitalist imperialism, be it operated by Britain or the United States, are drawn out. Examined via Gallagher and Robinson, such continuities include the willingness of states to engage in imperial action (regardless of public statements of anti-imperial sentiment); the use of formal and informal control to secure the frontiers of a state’s expanding economy; and the operation of imperialism through collaboration. However, in order to avoid the problems of earlier Marxist-Leninist interpretations of British imperialism, and in order to extend the analysis to the United States of America, the concepts of ideology, ruling elites, and neoliberalism are applied.
Research Interests: Globalization, Imperial History, Collaboration, Class, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, and 31 moreNeoliberalism, Neoliberal ideologies, Political Elites, British Empire, Social Exclusion, History of Elites, Political Economies of Capitalism, Imperialism/Colonialism, Racism, and Patriarchy, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), American imperialism, David Harvey, History of Imperialism, British Imperialism, Empire, Terry Eagleton, History of the British Empire, Elite Theory, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, U.S. Imperialism, Neo-liberalism, New Imperialism, Power, Elites and Society, Imperialism, Elites, Neoliberalism Vs Keynesism, War & U.S. Imperialism, Latin American Neoliberal Economies, Colonialism and Imperialism, Gallagher and Robinson, The Imperialism of Free Trade, and Alex Callinicos
Despite the international reach, and increasing global importance, of the free market provision of military and security services - which we label the Private Security Industry - management and organisation studies has yet to pay... more
Despite the international reach, and increasing global importance, of the free market provision of military and security services - which we label the Private Security Industry - management and organisation studies has yet to pay significant attention to this industry. Taking up Grey’s (2009) call for scholarship at the boundaries between security studies and organisation studies and building on Banerjee’s (2008) treatment of the PSI as a key element in necrocapitalism, in this paper we aim to trace the long history of the PSI and argue that it has re-emerged over the last two decades against, and as a result of, a very specific politico-economic backdrop. We then suggest that the PSI operates as a mechanism for neoliberal imperialism; demonstrate its substitution for and supplementing of the state; and count some of the costs of this privatisation of war. Finally, we take seriously Hughes’s (2007) thesis of the growth of a new security-industrial complex, and of the intersecting elites who benefit from this phenomenon.
Research Interests: International Security, Imperial History, Security Studies, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Colonialism, and 20 moreNeoliberalization of the state, Iraq, Neoliberalism, Neoliberal ideologies, Political Economies of Capitalism, Imperialism/Colonialism, Racism, and Patriarchy, American imperialism, Private Security Firms, Privatisation, Empire, U.S. Imperialism, Imperialism, Iraq War, The Post-war Development in Afghanistan, Accountability of Private Security Firms, Privatisation of Security, Private Security Companies, 2003 Iraq War, Private Security Companies and State, Private Military and Security Companies, and Private Security in International Politics
This article examines the governorship in Gibraltar of General Sir Archibald Hunter in the years from 1910 and to 1913. It highlights the difficulties that governors of strategically important British outposts, such as the imperial... more
This article examines the governorship in Gibraltar of General Sir Archibald Hunter in the years from 1910 and to 1913. It highlights the difficulties that governors of strategically important British outposts, such as the imperial fortresses of Gibraltar, Malta and Bermuda, faced in discharging the dual roles of civil governor and military governor. Drawing upon evidence from Hunter’s biographers, the National Archives in London and repositories in Gibraltar, this article examines the effect on the careful balance of interests between the Colonial Office, theWarOffice and the local civilian community when such a balance was tested almost to destruction by a governor more used to front-line military action than to colonial government. This article also sheds light on why Hunter’s subsequent career was stifled—something that his biographers have hitherto failed to explain.
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In Hayek on Hayek, Friedrich Hayek outlined that he maintained ‘…a theory that all economists that serve in government are corrupted as a result of serving in government’. In this way, Hayek defended his decision to avoid consultancy... more
In Hayek on Hayek, Friedrich Hayek outlined that he maintained ‘…a theory that all economists that serve in government are corrupted as a result of serving in government’. In this way, Hayek defended his decision to avoid consultancy work for governments and, at the same time, distanced himself from economists such as Lionel Robbins and John Maynard Keynes. In 1944, despite his stated reluctance, Hayek nevertheless researched and wrote a report for the Government of Gibraltar and the Colonial Office in London addressing issues surrounding the post-war reconstruction of Gibraltar’s economy. The report has received relatively little attention from scholars of Gibraltar. In addition, Hayek’s attitude towards his work on the Rock, as it is known locally, was dismissive; he characterised it as being in large part an excuse for a holiday. Yet there are important insights into Hayek’s political philosophy, and into the political economy of Britain and its empire in the 1940s, to be gained from investigating the report.
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In Andrew Canessa’s earlier edited volume Bordering on Britishness: National Identity in Gibraltar from The Spanish Civil War to Brexit (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), he and others examined what the Gibraltar-Spain frontier meant to... more
In Andrew Canessa’s earlier edited volume Bordering on Britishness: National Identity in Gibraltar from The Spanish Civil War to Brexit (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), he and others examined what the Gibraltar-Spain frontier meant to people based, mainly, in
Gibraltar. This second volume, also arising from the ESRC-funded ‘Bordering on Britishness’ project, broadens out the scope of the first volume to include a focus on the La Línea side of the Gibraltar frontier, as well as the frontier between Ceuta and Morocco, and even the
maritime frontier between Lampedusa and Tunisia. It incorporates oral history testimonies sourced as part of the ‘Bordering on Britishness’ project in addition to testimony collected through separate projects conducted by Beatriz Díaz Martínez on La Línea, Brian Campbell
on Ceuta, and Giacomo Orsini on Lampedusa.
Gibraltar. This second volume, also arising from the ESRC-funded ‘Bordering on Britishness’ project, broadens out the scope of the first volume to include a focus on the La Línea side of the Gibraltar frontier, as well as the frontier between Ceuta and Morocco, and even the
maritime frontier between Lampedusa and Tunisia. It incorporates oral history testimonies sourced as part of the ‘Bordering on Britishness’ project in addition to testimony collected through separate projects conducted by Beatriz Díaz Martínez on La Línea, Brian Campbell
on Ceuta, and Giacomo Orsini on Lampedusa.
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In this lengthy and broad-ranging history of Gibraltar, Nicholas Rankin attempts to make the case that Gibraltar was central to the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Rankin’s claim as to Gibraltar’s vital importance in the... more
In this lengthy and broad-ranging history of Gibraltar, Nicholas Rankin attempts to make the case that Gibraltar was central to the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
Rankin’s claim as to Gibraltar’s vital importance in the defeat of the Axis powers rests upon the evidence of Adolf Hitler himself. In the months before Hitler’s suicide in April 1945, the Führer reflected that ‘we ought to have attacked Gibraltar in the summer of 1940’ (p. 345). But Hitler’s declining mental faculties by 1945, combined with several years of chronic abuse of opiates and amphetamines, calls seriously into question whether his analysis should be given any weight. If anything, Hitler laying the blame for his defeat at the feet of an Anglo-Saxon European colony seems entirely consistent with his desire to avoid a truth that for him was utterly unpalatable – that the real turning point in the war was his army’s defeat at the hands of the Soviets at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Rankin’s claim as to Gibraltar’s vital importance in the defeat of the Axis powers rests upon the evidence of Adolf Hitler himself. In the months before Hitler’s suicide in April 1945, the Führer reflected that ‘we ought to have attacked Gibraltar in the summer of 1940’ (p. 345). But Hitler’s declining mental faculties by 1945, combined with several years of chronic abuse of opiates and amphetamines, calls seriously into question whether his analysis should be given any weight. If anything, Hitler laying the blame for his defeat at the feet of an Anglo-Saxon European colony seems entirely consistent with his desire to avoid a truth that for him was utterly unpalatable – that the real turning point in the war was his army’s defeat at the hands of the Soviets at the Battle of Stalingrad.
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Research Interests: European Union, Greek Economy, European Union Politics, European Union external relations, Economics of the European Union, and 8 moreDemocracy in the European Union, SYRIZA, European Union Insolvency Regulation, European Union Studies, European Economic and Monetary Union, Brexit, Podemos, and Yanis Varoufakis
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Research Interests: Socialisms, History of Capitalism, Globalisation and Development, Capitalism, Political Economies of Capitalism, Imperialism/Colonialism, Racism, and Patriarchy, and 25 moreAmerican imperialism, History of Imperialism, Socialism, Hayek, Anti-Capitalism, Imperialism, Anti-imperialism, Global Capitalism, Putin, Putin's foreign policies, Friedrich Hayek, Ruling Class, Vladimir Putin, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Putin, Russia, International Relations, Theories of Socialism, Hayek, Liberalism, Spontaneous Order, Hardt and Negri, President Putin, Friederich A. Hayek, Colonialism and Imperialism, Globalisation, Von Hayek, Friedrich August von Hayek, and Elites and Ruling Class
Research Interests: International Relations, Marxism, Human Rights, Security, Afghanistan, and 29 moreColonialism, Iraq, China, Neoliberalism, Development Theories And Policies, British Empire, China Overseas Investments, Political Economies of Capitalism, Imperialism/Colonialism, Racism, and Patriarchy, American imperialism, Historical Materialism, History of Imperialism, British Imperialism, Empire, History of the British Empire, China's foreign policy, U.S. Imperialism, Imperialism, Latin America, Iraq War, Benito Mussolini, Mussolini's Italy, Neoliberalism and Transnational Capital Flow, 2003 Iraq War, Dependency Theory, Neoliberalism Vs Keynesism, Italian Fascism, Mussolini, Mussolinismo, State Terrorism, Mussolini, and World System
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Research Interests: Gender Studies, Gender History, Imperial History, Victorian Royal Navy, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, and 8 moreColonialism, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), History of Imperialism, Empire, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, Imperialism, The relationship between the Royal Navy and British national identity, and Royal Navy
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Gender History, Imperial History, Gender and Sexuality, and 12 moreClass, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Colonialism, Gender, British Empire, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), History of Imperialism, Empire, History of the British Empire, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, Race, and Imperialism
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Research Interests: Gender Studies, Gender History, Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Imperial History, Gender and Sexuality, and 11 moreBritish Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Colonialism, Gender, British Empire, Colonial and Imperial (British) Legal History, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), HISTORY OF CRIME AND LAW, Empire, History of the British Empire, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, and Imperialism
This is the text of a speech delivered at the John Mackintosh Hall, Gibraltar, on 16 February 2016. It formed part of an event organised by the local UNITE union branch to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of the... more
This is the text of a speech delivered at the John Mackintosh Hall, Gibraltar, on 16 February 2016. It formed part of an event organised by the local UNITE union branch to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War entitled 'The Republican Struggle and the Gibraltar Dimension'. I expand further on some of the themes in this article published in the Gibraltar Chronicle in the same week: http://chronicle.gi/2016/02/gibraltar-and-the-spanish-civil-war-how-can-we-broaden-the-debate/ Dr. Gareth Stockey, of the University of Nottingham also spoke at the event. An overview of his ideas can be seen at: http://chronicle.gi/2016/02/spanish-civil-war-split-public-opinion-and-stirred-passions-on-the-rock/ The third academic historian to speak at the event was Prof. Jose Algarbani. An overview of his ideas can be seen at: http://chronicle.gi/2016/02/gibraltars-role-in-the-spanish-civil-war-was-significant-algarbani/ A GBC TV programme which covered the event can be accessed at:
Research Interests: Spanish History, Gibraltar, British Empire, British Imperialism, Spanish Civil War, and 7 moreHistory of the British Empire, Second Spanish Republic, Refugees, migration and immigration, Gibraltarian Identities, Straits of Gibraltar, Memory and Representation of the Spanish Civil War and Dictatorship, and Campo De Gibraltar
In the period 1890-1939, business in Gibraltar operated at two peripheries. The first and most striking aspect of Gibraltar’s peripheral nature was its frontier position as a British imperial outpost perched at the most southern tip of... more
In the period 1890-1939, business in Gibraltar operated at two peripheries. The first and most striking aspect of Gibraltar’s peripheral nature was its frontier position as a British imperial outpost perched at the most southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and sharing a frontier with Spain. The second and less immediately obvious periphery was that between two very different tax regimes. On the one hand, Gibraltar itself had virtually no taxation of any kind, whilst on the other hand Spain was a notoriously high-tax economy. This paper examines how businesses in Gibraltar were able to take advantage of this dual periphery. On the Gibraltar side of the frontier, businesses could sell goods such as tobacco cheaply in the knowledge that they could not be blamed directly if others subsequently smuggled these goods into Spain. Whilst on the Spanish side of the frontier, migrant workers, numbering in their thousands, offered Gibraltar’s merchants both cheap labour and a ready-made set of couriers for contraband goods which workers took into Spain to sell in order to supplement their wages. When combined with the shipping trade from the imperial metropolitan, and the supply of Gibraltar’s garrison by local businesses the money for which came from the imperial treasury, the result of Gibraltar’s location on the geographical and economic peripheries of the British and Spanish state was to establish in Gibraltar a ‘sponge’ for capital that considerably benefited the incomes of the local entrepreneurial community.
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This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. In later life, Hayek maintained that working for government was... more
This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. In later life, Hayek maintained that working for government was a corrupting influence on economists (and this was, in part, the reason for his alienation from Lionel Robbins from the 1950s onwards). We have very little evidence, therefore, from which to judge how Hayek would have implemented his political economy in practice. Nevertheless, by examining the reports which Hayek wrote after his visit to Gibraltar in August-September 1944 we can juxtapose proposals for the economic reorganisation of Gibraltar against the ideas outlined in The Road to Serfdom published earlier in the same year. In Hayek’s reports, he suggested the reorganisation of the state-regulated and rent restricted Gibraltar housing market in line with free market principles. By doing so, Hayek argued that the colony’s working class population would be forced to relocate into neighbouring Spain. Once there, they could take advantage of cheaper rents, opportunities for market gardening and opportunities to migrate further afield into Andalucía, should the search for work require it. Moreover, the removal of government planning in the housing market would also allow rents to rise in Gibraltar to the benefit of local landlords. Thus, so Hayek’s argument ran, market forces would bring prosperity to Gibraltarians, whilst at the same time avoiding a planned economy – the consequences of which he had just finished outlining in The Road to Serfdom (1944). However, rather than freeing Gibraltarians from the evils of state planning, as identified in The Road to Serfdom, this proposal would have delivered them into the dictatorship of General Franco. Not only was Franco’s regime brutal, but also it practiced autarkic economic policies virtually identical to those which Hayek maligned in The Road to Serfdom. Franco himself saw free market principles as a deceit by which the imperial powers had informally colonised countries such as Spain. And as a result, he worked hard from 1939 onwards to restrict foreign direct investment and to protect Spanish industry via heavy taxation on imports (the latter itself being a significant factor in sustaining the tobacco smuggling industry across the Gibraltar-Spain frontier). In sum, Hayek’s proposals would have benefited Gibraltar’s landlords at the expense of the liberty of the majority of the civilian population (whether liberty be seen in a Hayekian sense – the liberty of the free market, or whether it be seen as the liberty from authoritarian and arbitrary government). Hayek’s proposals were rejected by the colonial authorities in Gibraltar, as well as by the Colonial Office in London. Gibraltar’s governor described Hayek’s proposals as ‘cynical’ whilst a Colonial Office official characterised Hayek’s attitude as ‘bloodless’. Moreover, for esoteric reasons relating to Hayek’s unwillingness to alter the report’s findings, the result of Hayek’s efforts was, in fact, to inaugurate a period of extending state planning in the entire Gibraltar economy from 1945 onwards. To draw out this analysis, this work analyses material from the Hoover Institution Archive in Stanford, The National Archives/Public Record Office in London, and the Gibraltar Government Archive in Gibraltar. It concludes that Hayek’s belief in free markets over-rode his concerns about liberty as outlined in The Road to Serfdom.
Research Interests: Gibraltar, Forced Migration, History of Forced Migrations, Hayek, Friedrich Hayek, and 9 moreGibraltarian Identities, Forced migration and displacement, Hayek, Liberalism, Spontaneous Order, Hayek Versus Keynes, Friederich A. Hayek, Von Hayek, F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, and Friedrich August von Hayek
The affluent local bookie is a common, and reviled, character in the canon of literature addressing the lives of the working class. Drawing together the trope of the villainous bookie and the conference’s concern with the fallout from... more
The affluent local bookie is a common, and reviled, character in the canon of literature addressing the lives of the working class. Drawing together the trope of the villainous bookie and the conference’s concern with the fallout from the financial crisis, this paper examines the role of gaming companies in local communities since the enacting of the Gambling Act 2005. A side-effect of this act, which was primarily designed to facilitate the building of UK-based Las Vegas style “super casinos”, was that bookies in Britain were able to install a limited number of Fixed-Odd Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in their premises. In 2013, FOBTs accounted for over £1.3 billion of profits in the gaming industry as a whole, a figure now higher than that generated from ‘traditional’ over the counter bets. We examine the bookies of the neoliberal age, corporations which strip money from communities; use aggressive marketing tactics and cleverly designed machines to ‘hook’ players; and engage in sophisticated lobbying campaigns to defend and advance their interests. Whilst the money so extracted now heads off to London, or in some cases to either Gibraltar or the Cayman Islands, the class-based analysis which Tressell encouraged us to apply to communities such as Mugsbrough still reveals much about class, power and exploitation in Britain.
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This paper examines the clash of ideologies and tactics at the Gibraltar frontier between British-style ‘constitutional’ labour organisation and that of Spanish anarchist collectives between c.1880 and 1931. Through the use of archival... more
This paper examines the clash of ideologies and tactics at the Gibraltar frontier between British-style ‘constitutional’ labour organisation and that of Spanish anarchist collectives between c.1880 and 1931. Through the use of archival evidence and theoretical analysis, we examine in detail what happened when British style trade unionism was exported to Gibraltar. Notably, it was welcomed by the colonial authorities and employers as a potential way to de-radicalise local and indigenous workers’ movements but was, in fact, only partially able to do so.
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Research Interests: Globalization, Climate Change, Imperial History, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Colonialism, and 19 moreHistory of Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Social Exclusion, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), American imperialism, Heterodox Economics, History of Imperialism, British Imperialism, Peak Oil, Empire, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, Free Trade, U.S. Imperialism, Limits to Growth, Power, Imperialism, Global Crisis, Crisis of Capitalism, and End of Growth
This paper argues that viewing Gibraltarian society as homogenous is unhelpful. By looking at class relations in Gibraltar, a clearer picture of power relations on the Rock can be obtained. It will be demonstrated that Gibraltar,... more
This paper argues that viewing Gibraltarian society as homogenous is unhelpful. By looking at class relations in Gibraltar, a clearer picture of power relations on the Rock can be obtained. It will be demonstrated that Gibraltar, unsurprisingly, had within its society class divisions that challenge the prevailing historiography. For the purposes of this paper, it is Gibraltar’s entrepreneurial elite, known as the moneyed class that will be examined. It will be demonstrated that the existence of the operation of class in Gibraltar’s society brings into the question the traditional historiographical view, referred to above, of Gibraltarians being a homogeneous group. Moreover, it will be argued that the perpetuating of this trend in the historiography has been undertaken by contemporary elites that are keen to use history to justify their contemporary position within Gibraltarian society.
Contemporary British overseas territories, along with most former colonies and dominions, pride themselves on having achieved democratic government through either force of arms, or of arguments, against the UK government. Elites often... more
Contemporary British overseas territories, along with most former colonies and dominions, pride themselves on having achieved democratic government through either force of arms, or of arguments, against the UK government. Elites often point to their own historic role in securing self-government and this allows them to justify their political position and to construct a unique identity for that nation or territory’s population. Gibraltar’s own political cadre is no different and, like many other elites elsewhere, it is happy to point to the perceived benefits of western liberal democracy as established by, and secured from, Britain. British political systems in Gibraltar have been crucially important in the creation of Gibraltarian identity because they stand in sharp contrast to the dictatorial regime of General Franco (1939-1975). Thus for Gibraltarian politicians the creation of a national identity focussed around securing British rule of law and democratic principles for the Gibraltarian population by the political elite, is presented in sharp contrast to Spanish fascism. This paper demonstrates, however, that in the earlier half of the twentieth century, Gibraltar’s elite was more concerned with retarding democratic reforms than in progressing them as it struggled to maintain its position not in the face of a hostile Spain but against calls for democracy from the Gibraltarian working class.
Research Interests: Imperial History, British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Colonialism, Gibraltar, Political Elites, and 12 moreBritish Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Decolonisation (Colonialism), Empire, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, European Imperial and Colonial History, Decolonisation, Imperialism, Urban Elites, International relations / decolonisation, Democratisation, Decolonisation, Constitutionalism, Gibraltarian Identities, and British Decolonisation
This paper examines debates surrounding ideology from, roughly, 1945 to the present and in particular the debates that have raged between the advocates of western neoliberal capitalism and of Marxist theory. It will argue that scholars... more
This paper examines debates surrounding ideology from, roughly, 1945 to the present and in particular the debates that have raged between the advocates of western neoliberal capitalism and of Marxist theory. It will argue that scholars interested in ideology should not see the collapse of the Soviet Union as a fundamental weakness in Marxist thinking, as certainly many on the British left have. Furthermore, it argues that rather than seeing the 'victory' of capitalism as an ideology in 1990 as a changing-point in the history of capitalism, after which capitalism developed into something different than its hitherto form, it should be seen in the context of a continuity of economic ideology. Thus, it will be argued that current neo-liberal ideologies present only a modified form of the ideology of capitalism. The result of this has been that mainstream political cultures in Europe have been channelled into a belief in neo-liberal policies by elites. Admittedly this has moved at different paces, and has been promoted and resisted by different methods, across Europe but the outcome and motivations behind this process is the same. The paper will propose re-examining and re-invigorating Marxist analysis as a key concept for challenging this. Such a call is based on the notion that if capitalism is the 'only game in town' at the moment, then Marx's work is pretty much the only tool for understanding and critiquing it.
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This paper explores the way in which political ends have influenced the construction of Gibraltarian identity in post-1945 Gibraltar. It will examine how the construction of a Gibraltarian identity by Gibraltar-born (and some... more
This paper explores the way in which political ends have influenced the construction of Gibraltarian identity in post-1945 Gibraltar. It will examine how the construction of a Gibraltarian identity by Gibraltar-born (and some non-Gibraltarian) scholars has played a crucial role in the development of, and has been influenced by, political agendas on the Rock. It argues that class has been deliberately written out of the writing of the history of Gibraltar in order to present a united Gibraltarian front against both the Spanish claim and a perceived British betrayal perpetrated on the Rock’s inhabitants by the colonial authorities’ conduct of the civilian evacuation during the Second World War. It will be shown that returning the role of class to its rightful place in the narrative of Gibraltar's history can not only improve the quality of scholarly analysis but also provide new avenues for political organisation on the Rock. More broadly this paper makes some tentative suggestions as to how the writing of the history of Gibraltar and its influence on the Rock’s politics can be seen as a case-study in the way in which elites seek to preserve and advance their position in a society.
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It has long been postulated that the creation of national ‘identities’ involves a process of subverting or denying other forms of ‘identity’; in particular, those which might challenge the hegemonic, national ‘identity’. This paper... more
It has long been postulated that the creation of national ‘identities’ involves a process of subverting or denying other forms of ‘identity’; in particular, those which might challenge the hegemonic, national ‘identity’. This paper explores the apparent diminution of class as an analytical tool amongst politicians, academics and the public for explaining and understanding human behaviour. It will be argued that whilst other forms of social/historical analysis, based upon such notions as gender, race and sexuality, have enjoyed a relatively easy transition into the so-called ‘post-modern’ world, Marxist historians have fared less well. In both an academic and a political sense, Marxist historians have found the transition to post-modern theory impossible. Consequently, postmodernist academics have demonstrated particular vehemence in their denunciation of class as a tool of historical and social analysis. This paper will contend that a Marxist and class-based analysis is still essential for an understanding of past and present societies. Moreover, it will be argued that the rejection of class as an analytical tool, and the widespread academic embrace of postmodernist theory, has been inspired as much by a political agenda as it has by an academic one. Presented here is a case study of the British colony of Gibraltar. Here, it will be shown how the construction of a ‘national’ identity is a relatively recent, and indeed ongoing, process. Crucial in the formation of a unique ‘Gibraltarian’ identity has seen the rejection of class divisions and differences within the colony’s history. It will be argued that this process is part of a contemporary political agenda, and that furthermore, historians have been complicit in the project.
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General Sir Archibald Hunter (1856-1936) was one of the most promising officers in the British Army. After an illustrious career in Egypt, where he served in the British-officered Egyptian Army, he was one of the few generals who escaped... more
General Sir Archibald Hunter (1856-1936) was one of the most promising officers in the British Army. After an illustrious career in Egypt, where he served in the British-officered Egyptian Army, he was one of the few generals who escaped from the Boer War with his reputation intact. Later in his career he was Colonel of the King’s Own Lancashire Regiment and Member of Parliament for Lancaster. Nevertheless, despite this promising trajectory the middle of his career was blighted by a colonial political scandal. As a result, Hunter did not serve overseas in the Great War and was consigned to being commandant of the army barracks at Aldershot. The events that brought about this change in Hunter’s career took place in Gibraltar between 1910-13. As Governor of Gibraltar he clashed with the Colonial Office by attempting to associate his governorship with the War Office. In addition, a programme of sweeping civil reforms led him into conflict with the local entrepreneurial elite. The result was his eventual recall and an end to any hopes of obtaining the Field Marshall’s baton that had previously seemed just in reach. Drawing on hitherto unused evidence collected in Gibraltar, this paper will explore Hunter’s time in Gibraltar. It will show that, contrary to the view of the current historiography, it was not deteriorating local relations which formed the principal reason for Hunter’s recall, but rather his poor relations with the Colonial Office and Secretary of State, Louis Harcourt. An examination of this dispute illuminates further the difficult balance colonial governors had to maintain between their rights as a Crown appointed governor and duties both to the colonial and war offices.
Research Interests: British Imperial & Commonwelath History - 19th & 20th century, Gibraltar, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), British Imperialism, 19th & 20th century British Imperial & Commonwealth History, and 7 moreArchibald Hunter, Colonial Office, War Office, Louis Harcourt, Colonial Governance, Gibraltarian Identities, and War Office 1900-1914
Since the 1980s in Britain a number of factors have diminished, in the eyes of some scholars, the value of class as a tool with which to analyse modern western capitalist societies. The reasons for this are debatable and numerous but... more
Since the 1980s in Britain a number of factors have diminished, in the eyes of some scholars, the value of class as a tool with which to analyse modern western capitalist societies. The reasons for this are debatable and numerous but will be restricted to three crucial ones here: the disillusionment of the left in the face of the seemingly endless victories of Thatcher; the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent blow this brought to Marxist ideology; the integration of post-structuralist and postmodern theory into the social sciences. This paper offers some insights into why historians have been increasingly reluctant to use class as a method of discerning power relations. The explanations for this range from some historian’s belief that the working class no longer exists, to the idea that capitalism has somehow been altered by forces such as a knowledge economy that has made previous thought on the nature of economy and society redundant. This paper argues that such conceptions are at best misguided, and that indeed there is still a role for Marxism in historical analysis. The case will be made for countering, and peeling back the debates over social class and focusing on the relationship of the working class with the means of production. It is proposed that by doing this the left can understand the political landscape, and mold it, far more effectively.
Through farce, or through thinly disguised critique, the university novel genre has been a way for staff, and other social commentators, to highlight the problems of university life. The changing themes, locations, and types of characters... more
Through farce, or through thinly disguised critique, the university novel genre has been a way for staff, and other social commentators, to highlight the problems of university life. The changing themes, locations, and types of characters in university novels reflect the development of the university sector since the nineteenth century. They offer a window, written through the distance of satire or the passions of protest, on the changing nature of universities. What stands out is how evergreen these stories are. In this Brief, I map out (in an entirely unscientific way and with the occasional personal reflection) how the plots of university novels have developed over time and link them back to key themes in the changing landscape of life in the sector. I conclude that whilst the genre is ever changing, university novels will continue to be an important means through which social meanings are created around university life and staff protest against the excesses of university management.
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June’s change in the Spanish government has been welcomed in Gibraltar. The hard-line Partido Popular has been replaced by a coalition led by the more progressive Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Combined with the departure of... more
June’s change in the Spanish government has been welcomed in Gibraltar. The hard-line Partido Popular has been replaced by a coalition led by the more progressive Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Combined with the departure of the Brexiters David Davis and Boris Johnson, Gibraltar’s prospects in the Brexit negotiations may be improving.
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José Manuel García-Margallo, the acting Spanish foreign minister, has once again called for joint British-Spanish sovereignty of Gibraltar in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. David Lidington, UK’s Europe minister (whose... more
José Manuel García-Margallo, the acting Spanish foreign minister, has once again called for joint British-Spanish sovereignty of Gibraltar in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. David Lidington, UK’s Europe minister (whose department also has responsibility for Gibraltar), moved to reassure Gibraltarians of Britain’s commitment to their right to determine their own sovereignty. Nevertheless, Gibraltarians are entertaining severe doubts about their future relationship with the UK...
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Gibraltar’s voters opted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, by an astounding majority of 95% of the ballots cast, in a turnout of 83% of the electorate. Now the territory faces a dilemma, as the rest of Britain went in a different... more
Gibraltar’s voters opted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, by an astounding majority of 95% of the ballots cast, in a turnout of 83% of the electorate. Now the territory faces a dilemma, as the rest of Britain went in a different direction...
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Gibraltar is not an island – yet. But if the UK votes to leave the European Union in June, the rock may well, in many senses, become one. The debate may be raging in mainland Britain but in Gibraltar there is a strong consensus. Leaving... more
Gibraltar is not an island – yet. But if the UK votes to leave the European Union in June, the rock may well, in many senses, become one. The debate may be raging in mainland Britain but in Gibraltar there is a strong consensus. Leaving the EU would be disastrous for the local economy and way of life...
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Gibraltar has had a fascinating political history. Gareth Stockey, lecturer in Spanish studies at the University of Nottingham, Jo Grady, lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management, at the University of Leicester &... more
Gibraltar has had a fascinating political history. Gareth Stockey, lecturer in Spanish studies at the University of Nottingham, Jo Grady, lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management, at the University of Leicester & Chris Grocott, lecturer in Management and Economic History also at Leicester, examine one element.
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Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, Chris Grocott, outlines the first output of a new collaborative research project on the history of labour organisations in the British Empire.
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Posted by Chris Grocott in Management is too Important Not to Debate Blog on April 22, 2015
Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, Chris Grocott, reckons so.
Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, Chris Grocott, reckons so.
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Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, Chris Grocott, outlines a little known escapade of a largely known economist
Research Interests: Gibraltar, Neoliberalism, Hayek, Neo-liberalism, Spain, and 12 moreSpain under Franco, Autarky, Friedrich Hayek, Gibraltarian Identities, General Franco, Hayek, Liberalism, Spontaneous Order, HISTORIA DE GIBRALTAR Y SU CAMPO, Campo De Gibraltar, Friederich A. Hayek, Von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, and Friedrich August von Hayek
Research Interests: Imperial History, Migration, Labor Migration, Gibraltar, Neoliberalism, and 14 moreNeoliberal ideologies, British Empire, Forced Migration, History of Imperialism, British Imperialism, Hayek, Imperialism, Friedrich Hayek, Gibraltarian Identities, Campo De Gibraltar, Friederich A. Hayek, Colonialism and Imperialism, The Road to Serfdom, and Friedrich August von Hayek
Research Interests: Catalan Studies, Spanish Studies, Border Studies, Cross-border cooperation, Spanish History, and 26 moreGibraltar, Border Crossing, Spain (Mediterranean Studies), British Empire, Colonial and Imperial (British) Legal History, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), British Imperialism, Decolonialization, Cross-Organizational Cross-Border Collaboration, Spain (History), Border Studies (Geography), Spanish politics, History of the British Empire, Contemporary History of Spain, Decolonisation, Spain, Border Security, British Imperialism - mentalities of Empire, Gibraltarian Identities, Straits of Gibraltar, Modernity/coloniality/decoloniality, Catalonia Independence, Historia del Campo de Gibraltar, Campo De Gibraltar, Migration and Border Studies, and Nationalism and Decolonization
In late July of this year, Spain imposed a regime of heightened and arbitrary searches and delays at the Gibraltar frontier. Most commentators, including myself, predicted that the restrictions would not be imposed for long. As 2013... more
In late July of this year, Spain imposed a regime of heightened and arbitrary searches and delays at the Gibraltar frontier. Most commentators, including myself, predicted that the restrictions would not be imposed for long. As 2013 draws to a close, why then do we still see considerable disruption at the frontier?
Research Interests: Catalan Studies, Nationalism, Spanish History, Gibraltar, Spain (Mediterranean Studies), and 18 moreFrontier History, 20th Century Spain, Spain (History), Nations and nationalism, Frontier Studies, Contemporary History of Spain, Spain, Spain under Franco, Borders and Frontiers, Spanish Foreign Policy, Border and Frontier Dynamics, Frontier, Gibraltarian Identities, Straits of Gibraltar, HISTORIA DE GIBRALTAR Y SU CAMPO, Campo De Gibraltar, Territories and Frontiers, and Nationalism and Decolonization
Dr. Chris Grocott, Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, demonstrates how the recent political disputes between the UK, Spain and the people of Gibraltar are connected to on-going economic tensions which both unite... more
Dr. Chris Grocott, Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the School, demonstrates how the recent political disputes between the UK, Spain and the people of Gibraltar are connected to on-going economic tensions which both unite and divide them