ABSTRACT

Anglo-American relations were transformed during the First World War. Britain was already in long-term economic decline relative to the United States, but this decline was accelerated by the war, which was militarily a victory for Britain, but economically a catastrophe.

This book sets out the economic, and in particular, the financial relations between the two powers during the war, setting it in the context of the more familiar political and diplomatic relationship. Particular attention is paid to the British war missions sent out to the USA, which were the agents for much of the financial and economic negotiation, and which are rescued here from underserved historical obscurity.

part |85 pages

1914–1917 and American Neutrality

chapter |16 pages

British Purchasing in America

The Ministry of Munitions, June 1915 to April 1917

chapter |23 pages

Financial Relations, 1914–1915

The Growth of British Dependence

chapter |19 pages

Financial Relations, 1916–1917

The Slide to Disaster and the Advent of the Treasury Mission

part |129 pages

1917–1918 and the Love-Hate Relationship

chapter |38 pages

The Balfour Mission, April-May 1917

The American Giant Awakens

chapter |30 pages

The Northcliffe Mission, June–November 1917

The Imposition of American Control

chapter |26 pages

Financial Relations, 1917–1918

Crisis, Humiliation and Chagrin

chapter |5 pages

Epilogue

Did History Come to a Full Stop?