The Export White Paper, 10 September, 1941

Britain fought two battles for survival during the Second World War: one was the conventional military struggle, the other was an economic one. The damage suffered by the British economy because of the war was enormous. Many of the destructive elements are well known but there were also less obvious ways in which the country's future economic prospects were damaged. Britain liquidated over $1.5 billion of her overseas assets for the war effort during 1940-I, thus losing future revenue which would have helped with her postwar balance of payments difficulties. By December 1940 her reserves were virtually exhausted and she was accumulating new liabilities at a frightening rate. In December 1941 they stood at $3 billion.2 Such depletions of, and burdens upon the economy were difficult enough to countenance in themselves, but when combined with the changes the war wrought upon Britain's international trade then the economic outlook became almost unbearably bleak. Britain's export trade declined by over 50 per cent during the war. For a nation whose prosperity, indeed very existence, depended upon trade this was a disaster of gigantic proportions. The British Government's main obsession during the war, military issues apart, was with Britain's prospective postwar balance of payments problem. This article is not concerned with how this was eventually solved, but with one aspect of how it came about: the Export, or Eden, White Paper of Io September 1941.3