ABSTRACT
Across Europe, the British authorities were undoubtedly those in greatest control of their national economic and social situation. In the first instance this meant they knew with greater precision just how precariously their financial and supply circumstances stood. Hence the Cabinet's decision in August 1945 — when the end of Lend-Lease aid from America was suddenly announced, right after the Japanese surrender — to maintain a vast range of production, distribution and consumption controls inherited from the war for a further five-year transition period.
