| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the aftermath of the Great War, British diplomats were criticised for their earlier failure to pay due attention to international economic developments. However, as this essay reveals, in an effort to contain Germany's peaceful penetration of Ottoman Turkey after May 1906, Britain's foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was ready to commit his department's Secret Service money to the joint Anglo-French purchase of the Constantinople Quays Company. The venture proved less than profitable, and it was not, as some diplomats hoped, the precursor of a successful "industrial entente" between Britain and France in the Near East. Indeed, if anything, it highlighted the difficulties faced by diplomats in seeking to reconcile the interests of business and state in the conduct of foreign policy.
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