page_title: Crown Agents
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Crown Agents / History
caption_attribution_description: "Crown&amp;CA" watermark on the back of a Zululand stamp, scanned by User:Stan Shebs
context_page_description: Crown Agents Ltd is an international development company with head office in the United Kingdom. Its main focus is to help governments around the world to increase prosperity, reduce poverty and improve health by providing consultancy, supply chain, financial services and training. In April 2016 its financial services arm was sold to Helios Investment Partners, leaving Crown Agents Ltd to focus on offering expertise in the areas of "health, economic development, governance and state building, supply chain services and humanitarian response".
  Incorporated as a private limited company Crown Agents Ltd has only one shareholder – the Crown Agents Foundation, a not-for-profit company.
  Crown Agents Ltd's registered office is in Southwark, London.
context_section_description: Prior to 1997, Crown Agents was a UK public statutory corporation, overseen by the British Ministry of Overseas Development.
  Crown Agents originated as a body conducting financial transactions for British colonies. Agents were first appointed in 1749 to transfer and account for grants made to colonies from the British Treasury. These representatives were known unofficially as 'Crown agents' from at least 1758, and were accountable to colonial governments, though selected on the recommendation of the British government. A single body was created in 1833, when the Crown agents' business was consolidated under two Joint Agents General for Crown Colonies with an office of several staff. 
  The opening words of A W Abbott’s history were telling in the light of events to follow. “The Crown Agents have no formal Constitution and are not part of the United Kingdom Civil Service or of the United Kingdom Government machine. The Crown Agents are simply two individuals …who have been appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.</ref> This amorphous status appeared to come as a total surprise to the Government in the 1970s (see below).
  In 1861 the office was renamed Crown Agents for the Colonies. Crown Agents' responsibilities on behalf of colonial governments included accounting for Treasury grants, purchasing supplies, recruiting certain staff and raising capital on the markets. Crown Agents also oversaw specific colonial projects, such as certain stamp issues and some infrastructure construction.
  As decolonisation accelerated, the office was renamed Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations in 1954, and the rules were changed to allow it to take on projects for independent states (Iraq being the first example). Crown Agents expanded its activities to include more international development projects and investment management. The world's first sovereign wealth funds were managed by Crown Agents. 
  In 1967 the Crown Agents began to act as a principal, in addition to its traditional agency function. Heavy involvement in property speculation and secondary banking led to the financial losses of over £200m and necessitated Government support in 1974 (See “The Property Collapse below”). Its anomalous status as an autonomous body with close links to government came into question, and in 1979 Crown Agents was brought under government control as a statutory corporation. From 1987, shifting attitudes to state ownership of business and changes in British international development strategy led the government to support full privatisation of Crown Agents. It became a private company in 1997, ending its formal ties to the British government.
caption: The Crown CA watermark (seen here from the reverse), found on many British colonial stamps, refers to the Crown Agents
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