Crown Agents, 1914-1974

Britains Crown Agents Office was (and is) a unique development agency. A quasi-government organisation, it acted as the UK agent of colonial governments, and, from the mid-1950s, the administrations of dependencies and newly independent countries. As well as purchasing a large proportion of its customers imports, it provided them with finance and managed their investments. It was thus one of the largest buyers of goods in the UK, and, after the Bank of England, the countrys biggest financial institution. Attempting to re-invent itself, in 1967, it entered the secondary banking sector. The new venture, dogged by accusations of inefficiency and corruption, collapsed in 1974, and the resultant bankruptcy, the then largest in British financial history, attracted much media attention.<br> <br> The project investigated the Agents three major roles - their provision of non-aid finance, their management of UK investments, and their purchase of government stores. In addition, it looked at their management of infrastructure projects, their recruitment of expatriate staff, their contribution to the creation of development policy, and the reasons for their move into secondary banking and the subsequent bankruptcy. The findings of the research form the basis of a book, Managing British Colonial and Post-Colonial Development.<br> <br>