Chapter 384 Financial Discussions

Alan Wilson also really deal with money, although he is a civil servant of the foreign ministry, attending the meeting of the ministry of finance, it seems a little inappropriate, but this kind of thing, the rules are dead people are alive, as long as there is a supreme authority is willing to specialize in special affairs, nothing is impossible.

After arriving at the Ministry of Finance conference room, Alan Wilson and a few colleagues in the Ministry of Finance to greet, but not all strangers, many people have participated in the Whitehall reception, at least the level of familiar.

The conference room was bustling, after a while, the current civilian minister and permanent undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance Edward Bridges walked in, the conference room was instantly silent.

Waiting for Edward Bridges to sit down, he swept a circle with a scrutinizing gaze before speaking, “This meeting concerns the development and outlook of the country’s economy, as well as about the prospects of Europe’s economic recovery, as there is an important international conference coming up soon, and there are colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attending the meeting, which is used to cope with the preparations for the conference.”

“So the meeting is now in session, and there is some understanding about the current situation in the country, and although the indicators have returned to pre-war levels, it does not mean that the British Empire does not need assistance from the Americans.”

Edward Bridges set the tone for the meeting, “Sir Stafford and the Prime Minister are very concerned about this.”

Stafford Cripps is currently Labour’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary are the Prime Minister’s right hand men, and it is not too much of a stretch to say that they are both number two in the current government.

Stafford Cripps has an excellent relationship with the General Secretary of the British Communist Party and is considered an extreme leftist figure in the Labor Party.

But Stafford Cripps for the post-war Britain, just is very suitable, without the existence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Edmund Adderley’s Prime Minister wants to be in the tightening of the monetary fund, and the national health care and alloy tube program is certainly not so easy.

Then there is also the fact that it was also the support of Stafford Cripps that allowed the Board of Trade in British Occupation to instantly set up rationing, which is why one can’t make a simple distinction between left and right, it’s all complicated.

Just because the Labor Party came to power, from the curriculum vitae, to be in the opposition party are still very extreme, think that this batch of Labor Party ministers must not be good, otherwise, the Marshall Plan history is precisely the period of the reign of the Labor Party was accepted, how to explain that all these ministers who have been involved in the workers’ movement in the early years of their lives, to accept the assistance of the Americans?

Talking about the concerns of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stafford Cripps, about this, Edward Bridges went on to explain the current situation in Britain and what cards were in hand to bargain with the United States.

“There is no doubt that various developments now indicate that after the Iron Curtain speech of Senator Churchill, the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union is deepening, and from my personal point of view, the most valuable card in the hands of the British Empire at present is undoubtedly the British-occupied zone, as the most elite part of the German territory, as long as it is in the hands of the United Kingdom will sooner or later be restored, even if it is the Americans who are throwing money at us, it’s useless, the coastline is in our hands. Useless, the coastline is in our hands, the industrial zone is in our hands, the United States smashing money will only be sucked over by the British-occupied zone which has a much larger scale of industry, and this is the reason why we haven’t taken out even a single pound, and the British-occupied zone is still better than the American-occupied zone which has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“Even the U.S. Army in the U.S.-occupied zone came to the British-occupied zone to procure some things, and the Bavarian-dominated U.S.-occupied zone could not match the British-occupied zone industrially.”

Hearing Allen Wilson finish, Edward Bridges nodded with approval as he raised the report in his hand, “Allen is right, and the report I have in my hand can also prove it. Regarding the existence of the siphon effect, it has now become the subject of a study by the Treasury Department, of course just because of this to make a judgment is still too optimistic, the United States and the Soviet Union’s more and more obvious hostility, is a danger as well as an opportunity.”

When the United States had just entered the war, the representative of the British financial community had also optimistically estimated the United States, out of the national sentiment of Britain and the United States that after the war, “the Americans and the British will help each other to lead the world through the joint adoption of the Lend-Lease Act system and industrial cooperation.”

And his hopes would be dashed. Just as Keynes himself discovered in Washington, Americans saw the coming peace as an opportunity to make the British Empire sweat, not to support it.

By the time Breston Woods was established, Warburg pessimistically concluded that “Britain’s solution to the post-war problem was to link more closely with the Commonwealth self-governing territories and the countries of Western Europe, and not to rely on the United States at all.”

He found America’s aggressive economic policies very frustrating. The immediate post-war cancellation of the Lend-Lease Act by the United States confirmed that Britain would first have to defend its own security. It also confirmed that the United States might devote more resources to helping its former enemies rebuild than to helping its former allies rebuild.

“In terms of the present, Britain could end rationing within a year if American aid were forthcoming, and the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer want it. And of course we know that nothing comes for nothing, and the Americans have shown that in wartime.”

After Edward Bridges finished speaking, Alan Wilson replied, “In fact, it is not necessary for us to wait as if we were begging, and one thing that can be seen from the example of the British-occupied areas of Germany is that the areas of industrial concentration have a siphoning effect on the backward areas. From the perspective of Europe, which is currently in ruins, the United States’ industry is unharmed. It also has this condition!”

“So the so-called aid program, rather than the United States descending to earth as a savior, is more like a gimmick played by the Americans to get European countries to borrow money to buy American goods. I think there may still be some problems with the wording, but that’s actually what happened. Like our two-winged plan, it’s just a variation.”

“Think about it, during wartime, the United States oriented its economy to the war effort, with a large number of companies producing civilian goods switching to military products and increasing production and scale, before a large number of housewives stepped out of their homes to work in factories as laborers. As a result, the end of the war disarmament, military products demand fell off. The huge production capacity of these enterprises for a moment there is no market can be digested. But at this time Europe is facing the problem of reconstruction, there is a strong demand for all kinds of heavy machinery products, that is, Portugal, Iceland and other countries that did not experience the war also have a large number of construction needs.”

The people from the Ministry of Finance all nodded their heads in recognition, and one of the deputy secretaries general spoke up, “We also have our own advantages, and according to the news coming from the US embassy side, there are some strings attached to the US aid.”

“That’s not surprising, the Americans never do a losing deal.” Alan Wilson grunted and said, “The recipient country must buy a certain amount of American goods, withdraw tariff barriers as soon as possible, and remove or relax foreign exchange restrictions, there must be some these days, right?”

Seeing the colleague who opened his mouth to speak nod his head, Allen Wilson only said, “To be honest once the foreign exchange restrictions are lifted, with the current strength of the US dollar, the British pound will definitely suffer a run on the crisis, leading to problems on the exchange rate.”

“We can concede the benefits of the British-occupied areas, but we must be immune to these constraints. After all, the recovery in the country is now far more than expected, and from a larger perspective, the United States also needs us, after all, we don’t have a million-sized French and Italian Communists in the country, and to a certain extent we can cooperate with the U.S., but it’s not good to give in too much.”

“The words can’t be said that way, if the Americans give enough. We can properly agree to some conditions.” Edward Bridges eventually came up with his own opinion, “Depends on how big a figure the US comes up with from afar.”

To get Britain to cooperate you have to add money, this is what Edward Bridges meant, and likewise what his colleagues in the Treasury Department meant.

After the meeting, Edward Bridges informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stafford Cripps, of the outcome of the discussion at this meeting, and Stafford Cripps then went to the Prime Minister’s office.

At this time, Prime Minister Adderley was looking at the report on the assessment of the value of the colonies, just in time to see the Persian Gulf chapter, the next part of the Suez Canal chapter has not yet seen.

“Stafford, you’re here.” Prime Minister Adderley put down the report in his hand, saw the finance minister come in, let the other party take a seat and inquired, “Is it about the European Recovery Program?”

“Yes, the Ministry of Finance already has the results of the discussion.” Stafford Cripps took out the minutes of today’s meeting and said, “Isn’t it overly optimistic, although the recovery is more than expected, but for the current UK, the assistance of the Americans is also considered very important.”

Though unlike historically when Europe had a clear need and wasn’t in much of a position to consider bargaining.

Now that Britain has returned to pre-war levels, but the huge foreign debt is also there, it would still be a huge financial boon to receive this aid.

“If the Americans don’t attach too many conditions, we will continue to resume production in the British-occupied areas.” Prime Minister Adderley shrugged, “Having just signed and agreement with the Soviet Union for the supply of tin ore and rubber, it’s not like we don’t have room to maneuver if the United States doesn’t show good faith.”

The sky is certainly bluer in British India, but it is just as blue in British Occupation. And because of the British Occupation’s geographic location and industrial scale, it also led to a higher and bluer sky in the American Occupation, which was blocked inland.

As Prime Minister, Airdrie knew the role of the British-occupied zone as a catalyst for Britain’s economic development, and if the Americans were to take too much advantage of it, Airdrie might not cooperate either.

Allen Wilson, before the upcoming trip to Paris, received another negotiable condition that does not exclude support for the French annexation of the Saarland, which can be used as a condition to talk to the Americans, there is no mistake, it is to talk to the Americans about the French annexation of the Saarland.