Anglo-Irish Trade War

The Anglo-Irish Trade War (also called the Economic War) was a retaliatory trade war between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom from 1932 to 1938.

The Irish government refused to continue reimbursing Britain with land annuities from financial loans granted to Irish tenant farmers to enable them to purchase lands under the Irish Land Acts in the late nineteenth century, a provision which had been part of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.

This resulted in the imposition of unilateral trade restrictions by both countries, causing severe damage to the Irish economy.

The “war” had two main aspects:

• Disputes surrounding the changing constitutional status of the Irish Free State vis-a-vis Britain

• Changes in Irish economic and fiscal policy following the Great Depression.