Zusammenfassung der Ressource
10) Labour economic problems continued
- Balance of payments crisis 1947
- Devaluation of the pound from £1 = $4.30 to £1 = $2.80
- DEVALUATION EXPLAINED: The pound becomes worth less in dollars etc. It was done to
boost exports and reduce the balance of payments problem It meant making the £ (sterling)
worth less. In this case, the UK would export more because it would cost them less e.g. for
$43 they would get £10 of goods; after devaluation, for $28 they would get £10 of goods,
thereby encouraging them to export more and resolving the balance of payments crisis
- Cripps as Chancellor
- Cripps Budgets
- Petrol rationed and taxation ensured that many if the
small cars being produced went for export and the
£30 currency limit made any foreign travel difficult
- Cloths were "utility" ware and the national
appearance similar in many respects to that
associated with Eastern Europe under Communism
- The standard rate of income tax
remained at 45%, but surtax was
payable on top this by the wealthy
- A bachelor lucky enough to
have an income of £10,000 per
annum kept £3501 of it after tax
- Taxes on beer reached record levels in
1948, seven times what it had been in 1939
- Cripps needed the high revenue, not only as a way of controlling domestic
spending, but also to fund the foreign policy commitments referred to above and
the escalating costs of the health service, which far exceeded expectations
- Cripps had to encourage production to
rise, but the products should primarily be
for export to cover the necessary imports
- Cripps hoped to encourage such trends
through budgetary methods rather than the
physical controls of rationing
- But end product was the same