The alliance between the United States and Great Britain during the Second World War continues to be a source of great interest to scholars of Anglo-American relations. While in one sense a temporary pact based on the shared purpose of defeating the Axis powers, the Anglo-American alliance during World War II subsequently turned out to be of much greater significance. As well as forging the so-called ‘special relationship’ between the US and Britain, diplomacy between the two countries during the war was also the principal forum in which planning for the post-war era took place. Nowhere was this more so than in the sphere of commerce. Negotiations took place both at the highest levels of government, over the general principles that would shape the post-war global economy, and throughout the lower rungs of governmental bureaucracy, concerning specific industries and geographic regions in which both countries had significant interests.

Inevitably, Anglo-American economic diplomacy took place within the broader context of the changing economic fortunes of the two powers during the Second World War. The experiences of the US and Britain in this respect were vastly different. The US was not subject to the kind of economic hardships suffered by all of the other major belligerents in the war. On the contrary, the demand for weaponry created by the outbreak of war stimulated the US economy, finally lifting the country out of the Great Depression. Between 1940 and 1945 US gross national product rose from $99.7 billion to $211.9 billion.