IMPORT RESTRICTIONS IN POST‐WAR BRITAIN
| Author | A. M. Leyshon |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1957.tb00232.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1957 |
| Date | 01 November 1957 |
IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
IN
POST-WAR BRITAIN
War-time
Controls
Physical import controls in the British economy did not originate
as war-time measures.
In
addition to restrictions
on
dye-stuffs and
plumage in the 1930's, there were import quotas
on
some agricultural
foodstuffs, but they were insignificant quantitatively, being
a
half-
hearted measure to protect farming interests.'
At the outbreak of war, powers were given to the Board of Trade
to exercise control over imports, at that stage principally in order to
save foreign exchange.2 Few items were covered at first, and it was
not until June 1940 that general control was a~thorised.~ With the
fall of Western Europe and the beginning of Lend-Lease, the
raison
ditre
of the newly-formed Import Licensing Branch of the Board
of
Trade was transformed-shipping space, not foreign exchange, became
the scarce factor. Until the end of the war, military and strategic con-
siderations dominated the work of the new department.
Parallel with this development of control over private trade there
was a gradual extension of bulk-purchase under monopoly conditions
by the State, represented by the purchasing departments of the Minis-
tries of Food and Supply. Such were the advantages
of
centralised
importing under direct official control that by 1945 less than one-third
of the import bill was made up of private trade.
At the end of the war the completeness of central control was
impressive. The import sector was the responsibility of the Lord
President's Council, which was the most important executive body
responsible for administering the policies of the War Cabinet. Using
the criterion of economy in shipping space, this body drew up an
annual import programme-the type of programme which, springing
directly from a set of central decisions, was a major feature of the
immediate post-war period when a very large section of the economy
was still subject to control. Later, as targets and programmes became
less rigid, the central importance of the annual import programme
tended to decline. The gradual return to freedom meant that the
efficacy of centralised decisions diminished and with the abandonment
of internal control the annual import programme tended to become
little more than a review
of
possibilities.
Policy of the
U.K.
(N.I.E.S.R.).
1939.
1
Details
of
these quotas are contained in
Trade Regulations
&
Commercial
2
The Import, Export and Customs Powers (Defence) Act,
3rd
September
3
lmport
of
Goods
(Control) Order,
1940,
4th June 1940.
177
178
A.
M.
LEYSHON
In its hey-day the import programme was made up of a Commodity
Budget and a Currency Budget. The former listed the requirements
of the various buying departments and control organisations responsible
for government imports as well as the estimated needs of the private
sector, administered by the Import Licensing Branch. Against this was
set the Currency Budget, forecasting the available supply of foreign
exchange for the period under review. With the Treasury in the chair,
the usual inter-departmental method of mutual scrutiny of each others’
requirements followed until general agreement yielded a list
of
esti-
mates, which were then resolved into
a
programme.
Government Account purchasing dominated the war-time raw
materials and foodstuffs sector, but there was
no
uniform method of
buying based
on
the allocations agreed in the import programme. The
departments buying raw materials made general decisions about
transactions, leaving execution either to control agencies (e.g. the
Timber and Leather Controls) under direct departmental authority,
or to the relevant trade associations (e.g. rubber), which were paid a
commission by the interested department. In all cases the commercial
agents were drawn from the trade, and the degree of direct official
buying was largely a matter of personalities. Where departments had
senior trade officials
on
their establishment, dependence upon trade
associations was reduced. In general, however, the trade associations
were more important than control agencies in administering bulk-
purchasing.
The Ministry of Food set-up was rather different. Policy was in the
hands of the Food Import Committee which delegated responsibility
for commercial transactions to the Ministry’s commodity divisions and
executive action (e.g. in shipping, etc.) to the freight divisions. In both
food and raw materials this war-time system was continued substanti-
ally unaltered into peace-time.
Experience gained in the war-time control of private trade proved
also to be the foundation
of
peacetime methods. imports by private
traders being controlled through the issue
of
licenses carrying with
them automatic exchange facilities. By the end of the war, four main
types of licensing methods were operated by the Board of Trade-the
open general, the open individual, the block, and the specific license.
These four formed the basis
of
all subsequent developments
in
licensing
administration.
1.
The
Open
General
License
allowed unrestricted importation by
any person
of
the goods covered without production of
a
license by
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