ABSTRACT
The onset of a war for which there had been little planning led almost immediately to the closure of the Exchange through the unforeseen difficulty of settling bargains with overseas traders who had now to be regarded as enemy traders. Some reduction in the level of trading was foreseeable, but the Exchange had been obliged to accept restrictions as a condition of the government's facilitation of the reopening. The government's objective had been to eliminate trading which was not in the national interest of concentrating the nation's resources on the war effort. In short, after the 1914–1918 war, the Exchange failed to minimise the losses it had suffered and to maximise its potential gains. Responsibility for construction and maintenance of the physical facilities of the Exchange was a primary responsibility of the proprietors whose powers were delegated to trustees and managers.
