Interview with Kaufman awardee Robert Yee;
Who is Robert Yee?
I see myself mainly as a historian of political economy, broadly interested in the history of finance, central banking, and international relations in modern Europe. I received a PhD in history from Princeton in 2023.
Since then, I have been a junior research fellow at Wadham College, University of Oxford. The postdoc has given me the opportunity to meet a vibrant community of scholars. Most of my time is spent at seminars hosted by the Faculty of History and the Centre for Economic and Social History. At the same time, I have also had the chance to work on turning my dissertation into a book.
What’s the title of your project, and what’s the main argument/research question?
The tentative title of my book project is The Interwar Economic Order: Finance, Expertise, and the Bank of England, 1914–1939. It describes how the political and economic consequences of the First World War led the Bank of England to reevaluate its traditional role as a monetary authority. Each chapter focuses on the central bank’s interventions in different areas of the economy, including industrial affairs, foreign relations, reconstruction, and exchange-rate management.
I am particularly interested in tracing the rise of economic expertise in interwar Britain. As officials throughout the Treasury, the City of London, and the Bank of England confronted industrial stagnation and social unrest, they turned to a group of unelected experts to advise them. Experts were not only influential in helping structure particular reforms, but they were also responsible for creating an institutional dependence on expert opinion, a trend that continued well into the postwar years.
The broader goal of my research is to reevaluate the lens through which scholars have traditionally analyzed the structures of global economic governance. Whereas historians have predominantly focused on the perspective of international organizations, such as the League of Nations or the Bank for International Settlements, I aim to identify the importance of national institutions to understanding changes of global importance, such as cross-border trade and overseas finance. The central bank sought to preserve the prewar geopolitical arrangements of European capitalism and turned to outside advisers who supported these aims. By offering solutions on highly technical matters, the Bank of England and its experts were able to build the structural foundation of the interwar economic order.
Have you already presented this research, and what do you want to accomplish as a Kaufman fellow?
Yes, I have presented some of my work at conferences. At the 2023 BHC in Detroit, a group of us put together a great panel on reinventing global economic governance with presentations from Madeleine Dungy on trade law and Pierre Eichenberger on the International Chamber of Commerce. I also presented other chapters at conferences organized by the Economic History Society and the European Society for the History of Science.
As a Kaufman Fellow, I plan to finalize my book project for publication. It is currently under contract with Cambridge University Press, and I am hoping to see it published in time for the 100th anniversary of Britain’s return to the gold standard. Support from the Kaufman fellowship will allow me to conduct a few final archival trips, as well as get more involved with the financial history scholars at the BHC.