I assume the ideal of the Commonwealth was to promote independence in local governance, a self-sustaining economy and affiliation between the center and its parts as well as between parts. It would depend upon the colonies getting investment as well as institutions, building trade links, infrastructure of interconnection as well as ties to the center. This ran face first into how the colonies were in fact treated and the vigorous pursuit of self-interest. London had no use for a closed trade system where it had wealth enough to buy as it pleased and the parts were slanted to buy from Britain, even that was not vital, only the use of Pounds truly held sway. By the time the center figured out that it needed the parts the parts had discovered they could live without London. You need to stretch back beyond 1900 and how the Empire itself evolved. You need more vision to build Dominions that have a local Parliament, speak the Queen's English and use Pounds to trade freely inside the Empire, skim off only the taxes for the common defense. Frankly you have to overcome the racism of white elites generally, then the superiority of British towards colonial specifically, then the snobbishness of English versus everyone else. Reciprocity is the goal, not equality, save before the law, but Empires are founded upon exploitation, why else conquer distant natives? At best you get a multi-ethnic federation, at worst you get a global community with freer trade and commonality. That said I think the British Commonwealth had more potential than it lived up to, but I think you need to at least butterfly the Second World War, then get the UK serious about becoming a trade alliance.