Britain's Place in the World

Britain's Place in the World examines the establishment and effectiveness of import controls, particularly quotas. Placing quotas back in the centre of British history, Milward and Brennan make some radical claims for Britain's economic performance in a global context. Looking into a wide variety of industries from motorcars to typewriters, raw chemicals to food produce, they examine the intended and actual obstruction to imported goods represented by quotas, and the political and financial ramifications beyond the statistics. This is the fourth book to be published in the Routledge Explorations in Economic History series.

Alan S.Milward, formerly Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics, and of Economics in Stanford University, is the author of several books on the modern economic and political development of Europe including The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945-1951 (1992) and The European Rescue of the Nation State (1994). George Brennan is Research Assistant at the London School of Economics.

Introduction 1 A PERSPECTIVE ON BRITISH IMPORT CONTROLS 2 QUANTITATIVE IMPORT RESTRICTIONS AND THE MODERN STATE 3 BRITISH COMMERCIAL POLICY AND THE OEEC TRADE LIBERALISATION PROGRAMME, 1949-51 4 TAKING THE LEAD IN EUROPE The international politics of import controls, 1952-6 5 MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF QUANTITATIVE IMPORT RESTRICTIONS 6 THE EFFECT OF IMPORT CONTROLS ON BRITISH MANUFACTURING