The Anglo-Irish Trade War (also called the "Economic War") was a retaliatory trade war between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom (UK) lasting from 1932 until 1938. It involved the refusal of the Irish Government to continue to reimburse Britain with the "land annuities" derived from financial loans granted by Britain to Irish tenant farmers to enable them purchase lands under the Irish Land Acts during the previous half century, a provision which was part of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. This resulted in the imposition of unilateral trade restrictions by both countries, which caused severe damage to the Irish economy.
The "war" had two main aspects:
- Disputes surrounding the changing constitutional status of the Irish Free State vis-a-vis Britain; and
- Changes in Irish economic and fiscal policy following the Great Depression.
Read more about Anglo-Irish Trade War: Protective Policy, Treaty Dismantled, Conflict Deepens, Coal-Cattle Pact, Effect On Irish Elections, Resolution, Long-term Effects
Famous quotes containing the words trade and/or war:
“No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“In time of war you know much more what children feel than in time of peace, not that children feel more but you have to know more about what they feel. In time of peace what children feel concerns the lives of children as children but in time of war there is a mingling there is not children’s lives and grown up lives there is just lives and so quite naturally you have to know what children feel.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)