Word: commonwealth
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...most scenically spectacular in the world, has been an outpost of British culture for some 300 years, and its English tradition has paid off in the political sophistication and orderly ease with which the Jamaicans have taken to their present status as independent members of the British Commonwealth...
...COMMONWEALTH...
Since Britain appeared to be shut out of the Common Market, at least for now, its businessmen were already engaged in looking where else to turn. For some, among whom the noisiest was Lord Beaverbrook, the best alternative was to whip the Commonwealth into a kind of super common market. Composed of 16 nations that are threaded together by a complicated system of preferential tariff agreements, the Commonwealth has a population of 715 million, accounts for 23% of the world's trade. The Commonwealth, India's Nehru once mused, is "a rather strange and odd collection of nations...
...despite its size, the Commonwealth alone is unlikely to give Britain the trading scope that its economic health requires. Organized in 1931, its trading charter called for the members to send their agricultural products and raw goods to Britain, buy manufactured goods in return. But during World War II, Britain revitalized its farms, reducing its need for imported foodstuff. After the war, as Commonwealth members began to industrialize, they threw up tariffs to protect their fledgling industries. Last year, even while Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker was pleading with Prime Minister Macmillan not to join the Common Market, Canada slapped...
Shopping Around Asia. Commonwealth members have been busy lining up new trading partners ever since Britain began to woo the Common Market. Japan is this year expected to replace Britain as Australia's best customer. New Zealand is shopping around Asia for new markets. The African Commonwealth nations appear more concerned about dealing with fellow Africans than with their white Commonwealth brothers. Though world exports have increased 46% in the past eight years, export trade among the Commonwealth nations has risen only 17%. Instead of hoping that Britain would return to the fold, most Commonwealth businessmen hoped that Britain...