Post-war baby-boom, cash crisis

1947 - Post-war baby boom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QioLCTRO3NE

"No More Babies!" - Expert Calls For Ban on Childbirth (1947)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChCjgYGTL4Y

Post-war cash crisis

This film short is trying to relay the message that only five pounds in notes could be taken abroad in the late 1940s. Although the message offers little or no explanation for the restrictions it is almost certainly to avoid a 'balance of payments' crisis.

Before war broke out in 1939 Britain was saddled with debts totalling £496million, which by 1945 debt had risen to £3.5billion. Britain was in effect, an economic dependant of the United States.

With industry run down or converted to the war effort, and traditional world markets disrupted, Britain was near bankruptcy during the Second World War. In March 1941 the United States offered much needed economic support for the British to continue the fight against the Axis Powers through the Lend-Lease agreement.

Britain 'borrowed' over £5 billion worth of goods through Lend-Lease. But the extent to which the British economy had become dependent upon the American support became clear after the war.

American Lend-Lease abruptly ended within days of the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945. The post-war negotiated loan repayments left Britain near to economic collapse less than two years later.

In the summer of 1947 Britain faced a huge balance of payments deficit. More money was flowing out of the country than flowing in. The crisis was exacerbated by a fuel shortage the previous winter that led to a 25 per cent loss of exports. Also the conditions of repayment for the wartime loans imposed by America placed further pressure on the balance of payments and the value of sterling.

The crisis proved to be a major setback for Attlee's administration, denting public confidence and forcing reductions in public spending. It also demonstrated the fragility of post-war economies throughout Europe. The subsequent introduction by the United States of Marshall Aid in 1948 assisted the rebuilding of European nations ravaged by the war with American dollars. Britain was the largest beneficiary.

Post-war bankruptcy blues

Britain's wartime enthusiasm and self-confidence had become seriously eroded by the crisis-laden year of 1947. Domestically, the continuation of rationing, including for the first time bread (between 1946-48) and the fuel and economic crises, together with Indian independence, 1947 was largely a year that dented the immediate post war assurances.

Although the wartime Lend-Lease agreement had enabled Britain to continue its struggle against the Axis Powers alone [to America's great benefit], it gave the misleading appearance of the nation as a first-rank power. In the immediate post war years it gradually became hard to understand how as a winning power, head of a great empire, second only to USA in influence [now deep in debt to America, which had stayed out as long as possible], became so austere and destitute.