ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this chapter is to explain the development of agricultural support policies in the post-war period, and to consider their operation prior to the radical upheaval caused by the crisis of the CAP from the early 1980s, which is dealt with in the next chapter. This is an important story, for contemporary accounts are inclined to consider agricultural policy solely in the light of the CAP. In reality the legacy of pre-European policy still remains and, in terms of agricultural production, the seeds of current difficulties were sown long before accession to the Common Market. The UK did not have protectionist and interventionist policies foisted upon it when it joined the Community on 1 January 1973; some were already in place.
