International Economic Policies at the End of the Second World War

Abstract

The international situation in the summer of 1945 was unique in modern history; unique in that it gave to nations and to the world as a whole an opportunity for a completely new start. In certain fields, notably the economic, it was possible not only to reform international relations, but to start again virtually from scratch. This was the case with the international payments system, redrafted by the United States and Britain while the war was still in progress. In other fields changed relationships and relative strengths called for complete reassessment of policy aims and for different criteria of economic judgement. It is, therefore, a necessary preliminary of any examination of the postwar international economy to examine this problem of realignment.

‘things could be kept together by accepting the similarities, not the differences of men’. E. M. Forster in The Longest Journey