Item PHA/6/6/40 - Silver medal commemorating All-British Shopping Week in Ealing

This event was introduced in London to encourage the sale and purchase of British-made goods and coincided with a Festival of Empire at Crystal Palace.

The British seemed more conscious than ever that 440 million people were part of the widest spread and most powerful empire the world had seen. Colonies were places from which the British could import goods at a profit and to which they could export. Globalization had started with the British Empire. In Britain, in the 1920s and 30s this was reflected in every high street. There were hundreds of high street promotions with titles such as, Empire Shopping Week. An Empire Marketing Board, sold Empire to the people. The message was simple: buy Empire produce and make our kith and kin and ourselves strong.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_85.shtml

Another article attributes it to the Women's Patriotic League in 1922. Source: Frank Trentmann 'Before "free trade": empire, free trade and the moral economies of food in the modern world' in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25(6) 2007.

This event was introduced in London to encourage the sale and purchase of British-made goods and coincided with a Festival of Empire at Crystal Palace.

The British seemed more conscious than ever that 440 million people were part of the widest spread and most powerful empire the world had seen. Colonies were places from which the British could import goods at a profit and to which they could export. Globalization had started with the British Empire. In Britain, in the 1920s and 30s this was reflected in every high street. There were hundreds of high street promotions with titles such as, Empire Shopping Week. An Empire Marketing Board, sold Empire to the people. The message was simple: buy Empire produce and make our kith and kin and ourselves strong.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_85.shtml

Another article attributes it to the Women's Patriotic League in 1922. Source: Frank Trentmann 'Before "free trade": empire, free trade and the moral economies of food in the modern world' in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25(6) 2007.