ABSTRACT
W orld W ar I devastated international trade, and recovery was slow and incom plete in the 1920s. Britain’s invisible trade was as badly affected by this, by the succeeding great depression o f 1929-33 and by the protectionism w hich charac terised the 1930s, as was the export trade in manufactures. The problems o f the latter were com pounded by further competitive failures in markets w hich had been particularly im portant to Britain before 1914. Invisible exports were also threatened by increased competition, and N ew York proved to be an effective rival source o f long-term international investment in the 1920s. In the 1930s, however, w hen neither London nor N ew Y ork could lend abroad, the C ity o f London remained the headquarters o f the largest commercial and financial bloc in the world, the Sterling Area, and its development was restrained as m uch by lack o f opportunity as by competition.
