Anglo-American loan

Signature of the loan. Bottom row from left: economist John Maynard Keynes (leader of the British negotiators), Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to the USA, James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State, Fred M. Vinson, United States Secretary of the Treasury. Future US Secretary of State Dean Acheson stands third from right in the back row.

The Anglo-American Loan Agreement[1] was a post World War II loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946, and paid off in 2006.[2] The loan was negotiated by John Maynard Keynes. The loan was for $3.75 billion (US$57 billion in 2015) at a low 2% interest rate; Canada loaned an additional US$1.19 billion.

Background

The loan was made primarily to support British overseas expenditure in the immediate post-war years and not to implement the Labour government's welfare reforms. British treasury officials believed they could implement the Labour government's domestic reforms without the loan if Britain withdrew from all major overseas commitments.[3] Additionally, Britain's lend-lease balance was paid off for $650 million (US$900 million) in 2006.

At the start of the war, Britain had spent the money that they did have in normal payments for materiel under the "US cash-and-carry" scheme. Basing rights were also traded for equipment, e.g., the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, but by 1941 Britain was no longer able to finance cash payments and Lend-Lease was introduced. Lend Lease aid did not have to be paid back, but the other loans did.

Large quantities of goods were in Britain or in transit when Washington suddenly and unexpectedly terminated Lend-Lease on 21 August 1945. The British economy had been heavily geared towards war production (around 55% GDP) and had drastically reduced its exports. The UK therefore relied on Lend-Lease imports to obtain essential consumer commodities such as food while it could no longer afford to pay for these items using export profits. The end of lend-lease thus came as a great economic shock. Britain needed to retain some of this equipment in the immediate post war period. As a result, the Anglo-American loan came about. Lend-lease items retained were sold to Britain at the knockdown price of about 10 cents on the dollar giving an initial value of £1.075 billion.[4]

Agreement

Terms

John Maynard Keynes, then in poor health and shortly before his death, was sent by the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada to obtain more funds.[5] British politicians expected that in view of the United Kingdom's contribution to the war effort, especially for the lives lost before the United States entered the fight in 1941, America would offer favorable terms. Instead of a grant or a gift, however, Keynes was offered a loan on favorable terms.

Historian Alan Sked has commented that, "the U.S. didn't seem to realize that Britain was bankrupt", and that the loan was "denounced in the House of Lords, but in the end the country had no choice."[6] America offered $US 3.75bn (US$51 billion in 2018) and Canada contributed another US$1.19 bn (US$16 billion in 2018), both at the rate of 2% annual interest.[7] The total amount repaid, including interest, was $7.5bn (£3.8bn) to the US and US$2bn (£1bn) to Canada.[8][9]

The loan was made subject to conditions, the most damaging of which was the convertibility of sterling.[10] Though not the intention, the effect of convertibility was to worsen British post-war economic problems. International sterling balances became convertible one year after the loan was ratified, on 15 July 1947. Within a month, nations with sterling balances (e.g. pounds which they had earned from buying British exports, and which they were now permitted to sell to Britain in exchange for dollars) had drawn almost a billion dollars from British dollar reserves, forcing the British government to suspend convertibility and to begin immediate drastic cuts in domestic and overseas expenditure. The rapid loss of dollar reserves also highlighted the weakness of sterling, which was duly devalued in 1949 from $4.02 to $2.80.[11]

In later years, the term of 2% interest was rather less than the prevailing market interest rates, resulting in it being described as a "very advantageous loan" by members of the British government, as elaborated below.

Loan spending

Much of the loan had been earmarked for foreign military spending to maintain the United Kingdom's empire and payments to British allies prior to its passage, which had been concealed in negotiations through to the summer of 1946.[12] Keynes had noted that a failure to pass the loan agreement would cause Britain to abandon its military outposts in the Middle Eastern, Asian and Mediterranean regions, as the alternative of reducing British standards of living was politically unfeasible.[13]

Repayment

The last payment was made on 29 December 2006 for the sum of about $83m (£45.5m), the 29th being the last working day of the year.[2][4][14] The final payment was actually six years late, the British Government having suspended payments due in the years 1956, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1976 because the exchange rates were seen as impractical.[15] After this final payment Britain's Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls, formally thanked the US for its wartime support.[16]

In television

Sir Christopher Meyer presented a history of the loan and its effects in the BBC series Mortgaged to the Yanks.

See also

References

  1. ↑ BBC 2005
  2. 1 2 "What's a little debt between friends?". BBC News. 10 May 2006. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  3. ↑ Richard Clarke, Anglo-American Collaboration in War and Peace, 1942-1949 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1982).
  4. 1 2 Rohrer 2006
  5. ↑ Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes. Vol. 3: Fighting for Freedom, 1937-1946 (2001) pp 403-58
  6. ↑ International Herald Tribune 2006
  7. ↑ Philip A. Grant Jr., "President Harry S. Truman and the British Loan Act of 1946," Presidential Studies Quarterly, (Summer 1995) 25#3 pp 489-96
  8. ↑ McIntyre, W. David (1998). British Decolonisation, 1946-1997. Macmillan Press Ltd. p. 83. ISBN 0-333-69331-0.
  9. ↑ Kindleberger 2006, p. 415
  10. ↑ Rosenson 1947
  11. ↑ Documentary evidence can be found at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers, see CAB128/10. For a good account of the convertibility crisis, see Alec Cairncross, Years of Recovery: British Economic Policy, 1945-1951, (London, 1985), pp.121-164.
  12. ↑ Randall Bennett Woods (1990). A Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946. p. 374.
  13. ↑ Woods, p 375
  14. ↑ Epstein 2007
  15. ↑ Thornton 2006
  16. ↑ "Britain pays off final instalment of US loan - after 61 years". The Independent. 2006-12-29. Retrieved 2018-02-16.

Further reading

  • Block, Fred (1977). The Origins of International Economic Disorder. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. pp. 32–69. ISBN 0520037294.
  • Callaway, Darden. "The Anglo-American Loan of 1946: US Economic Opportunism and the Start of the Cold War." (Davidson College thesis, 2014). online, with detailed bibliography and links
  • Clarke, Richard William Barnes (Sir.); Alec Cairncross (1982). Anglo-American economic collaboration in war and peace, 1942-1949 (1982 ed.). Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-828439-0. - Total pages: 215
  • Grant Jr., Philip A. "President Harry S. Truman and the British Loan Act of 1946," Presidential Studies Quarterly, (Summer 1995) 25#3 pp 489–96
  • Kindleberger, Charles P. (2006). A Financial History of Western Europe (2006 ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-37867-3. - Total pages: 525
  • Rosenson, Alex (March 1947). "The Terms of the Anglo-American Financial Agreement". The American Economic Review. American Economic Association. 37 (1): 178–187. JSTOR 1802868.
  • Skidelsky, Robert. John Maynard Keynes. Vol. 3: Fighting for Freedom, 1937-1946 (2001) pp 403–58
  • Wevill, Richard. Britain and America after World War II: Bilateral Relations and the Beginnings of the Cold War (I.B. Tauris, 2012)

Primary sources

  • The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Volumes 24 (London: Macmillan Press, 1979)
Newspaper accounts of payoff
  • BBC, FIRST (June 2005). "Great Political Mistakes" (Documentary). BBC. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  • BBC News (29 December 2006). "UK settles WWII debts to allies". BBC News. Archived from the original on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
  • Epstein, Rafael (3 January 2007). "UK pays off WWII debt to US". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  • International Herald Tribune (28 December 2006). "Britain to make its final payment on World War II loan from U.S." The New York Times. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  • Rohrer, Finlo (10 May 2006). "What's a little debt between friends?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  • Thornton, Philip (29 December 2006). "Britain pays off final instalment of US loan - after 61 years". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2010.

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