Shaping monetary policy and development in South Africa: the role of Jack Holloway and Andries Bruwer, from 1914 to 1950

Abstract

The period 1914-1950 saw the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in the public service, and in politics. Amongst its aims was the achievement of an economic sovereignty for South Africa that would serve Afrikaner interests. It saw profound institutional changes in the financial sector, and heated debates on monetary policy, many of which also had international dimensions. This thesis focuses on these debates, considering them in two broad categories: ‘Sound money’ and ‘Development money’ theories. The former saw free- trade as an engine of wellbeing and pursued global laissez-faire; the latter were protectionist and national in their focus, seeing domestic production as the engine of wellbeing. A key advocate of development money was Dr A J Bruwer, Chairman of the Board of Trade and Industry from 1924 till 1932, who was inspired by John Maynard Keynes, and corresponded with him. A local leader of the sound money school was Dr J E Holloway who was to become Secretary of Finance from 1937 to 1950, and who was inspired by Dr Edwin Kemmerer, the sound money advocate of the gold standard. The key materials for the dissertation were drawn from archival sources, principally the papers of Bruwer, Holloway, White, Keynes and Kemmerer, but also encompassing a range of other archival sources. It uses these to show the influences of the international monetary debate on the South African one, and also the South African contribution to the global debate. In this context, it is argued that both the American chief negotiator at Bretton Woods, Harry Dexter White, and his British counterpart, John Maynard Keynes, were development money thinkers who opposed Kemmerer’s Wall Street supported policies.