BRITAIN AFTER 1945: RECONSTRUCTION

The signature of Lend-Lease agreement with the USA, which agreed to lend some money to the British government which sort of opened an English credit in order to finance the war. This agreement meant that one day the British government would have to repay the money. The war officially ended on 8th may 1945 and the following week the Americans sent the bill. The British government was in a very awkward position as the coffers were almost empty. Nevertheless, the government sent a team of economists headed by Keynes and they went to Washington in order to negotiate the repayment of the loan. The following years were years of restriction and hardship for the British population. In the mean time, the economy was trying to reorganize for the military related industry it was difficult to readapt to ordinary life and to peacetime requirements. Nevertheless, little by little economic production rose again and consumer goods became more and more widely available. People wanted to consume, to move, so they bought cars, to buy radios, to be entertained,… so of course, the 30 years that followed are considered in Britain as years of affluence, the buying power of families increased and there was an important demand for commercial items.
Chemicals were at the origin of important discoveries, like artificial textiles in the 1950s, and played an important role afterwards. In 1945, labour government headed by Clement Attlee (the Prime Minister) came into power for the first time and ran a very ambitious program of social welfare. This socially-minded program took two forms: the creation of an important network of social services ( National Health Service, which was the first of its time in Western Europe and it was totally free for the first 3 years) and a vast program of nationalizations as in most of the west European countries, the nationalizations of utilities, not of the economy as it always remained a capitalist country. Nationalize