“Empire Christmas Pudding”
by zunguzungu
One of the truly undigested facts about Britain’s colonial empire in Africa was just how un-profitable it pretty much always was, and just how much distaste most British administrations had for their African possessions for that reason. The great scramble came about largely because Germany suddenly wanted colonies and, since Africa was between Britain and India, European competition made Britain fearful of being cut off from the only colony that mattered all that much to them (famously, Britain used to have a Secretary of State for the Colonies and also a Secretary of State for India, which sort of demonstrates their priorities). And so they joined in the scramble, and only afterwards tried to think of ways to make it all profitable. But only South Africa ever really was, which made it all the easier to cut the empire loose once they had no choice anymore; they always had high hopes, but for all sorts of reasons, those hopes were very rarely achieved under British government.
Anyway, in 1926, the Empire Marketing Board was established to try and get Britons to buy products from the empire, and this recipe, for “The King’s Empire Christmas Pudding,” sort of says it all about Britain’s difficulty in find profitable commerce in Africa. See if you can see what’s missing:
5 lb. currants (Australia)
5 lb. sultanas (Australia)
5 lb. stoned raisins (South Africa)
1 ½ lb. minced apple (Canada)
5 lb. breadcrumbs (United Kingdom)
5 lb. beef suet (New Zealand)
2 lb. cut candied peel (South Africa)
2 ½ lb flour (United Kingdom)
2 ½ lb. Demarara sugar (West Indies)
20 eggs (Irish Free State)
2 oz. ground cinnamon (Ceylon)
1 ½ oz. ground cloves (Zanzibar)
1 ½ oz. ground nutmegs (Straits Settlements)
1 teaspoonful pudding spice (India)
1 gill brandy (Cyprus)
2 gills rum (Jamaica)
2 quarts old beer (England)
I’m also fascinated by the fact that “England” provides beer, the “Irish Free State” provides eggs, but the “United Kingdom” provides flour and breadcrumbs (does that mean Scotland?).
zunguzungu 
The British are supposed to be notoriously bad cooks. India is missing. The Middle East was nominally under a mandate system.
“The British are supposed to be notoriously bad cooks.” Which is what makes the whole thing so deliciously ironic.
Actually, I see India was included. The Falklan Islands are missing, as are Diego Garcia and Gilbraltar.
Also, British Guyana, unless “West Indies” includes that. But it’s so interesting to me that Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Gold Coast, Nyasaland, Bechuanaland, British Somaliland, etc, get no mention at all; somewhere between the difficulty of thinking of a way to incorporate their products (palm oil in a christmas cake?) and the fact that they didn’t want to think of them as part of the empire, they get excluded.
Indeed. I wonder what psychological blocking the British (or Americans) are going to do over Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hadn’t you heard? In a matter of weeks, we’ll have completely withdrawn from Iraq! As for Afghanistan, that’s the good war, plus Karzai’s sovereign government IS IN FULL CONTROL.
That’s true too. I guess the U.S. gets to wash its hands of Iraq, just like it did with Vietnam.
West Indies included British Guyana, in the minds and administrative logic of the British Empire. Indeed, the place “Demarara”, as opposed to the sugar, was on the mainland, not an island.
I’m fascinated by the size of that pudding. That’s at least 30lbs of ingredients.
Daiyami,
That seems right, which is why South Africa and Zanzibar don’t seem like “Africa” to me; the former is a white commonwealth like Australia or Canada (or aspires to be) while Zanzibar was always much more a part of the Indian administrative framework (I forget when they stopped using the rupee, but it was right around this time).
Hadn’t even noticed the size of the pudding. That’s a lot of pudding!