Board of Trade: Commodity and General Division and successors: Registered Files (CG...

BT 213

1949-1971

Registered files of the Board of Trade's Commodity and General Division and its successors.

This series contains information related to the postwar British export drive. Subjects covered include hire purchase; the balance of payments; export credits; overseas markets, investments and development schemes; the formation of the European Free Trade Association; commercial and business practices, export licences and control of the export of arms, including a number of files concerning the export of arms to South Africa. Correspondence with various associations and official bodies, which refers to a number of schemes and agreements, can also be found. Some files refer to atomic energy, with particular reference to exports, publicity and development programmes in Commonwealth countries. There are also files of the Economic Research Unit.

With the exception of a few policy files the records in this series belong to annual series, with either a CG or GD prefix.

The files are arranged in previous reference order within each accession.

General Division files in the policy, general and record series can be found in BT 278

CG and GD Annual Series

Public Record(s)

English

• Board of Trade, Commodity and General Division, 1954-1957
• Board of Trade, General Department, 1963-1968
• Board of Trade, General Division, 1957-1963

542 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Topics

Trade and commerce

Nuclear energy

Research

Africa

The Commodity and General Division of the Board of Trade was established in 1954 with responsibility for fuel policy, hire purchase controls, the European Free Trade Association and allied matters. It was also responsible between 1954 and 1957 for liaison with the Export Credit Guarantee Department, and strategic stocks, formerly controlled by the Ministry of Materials. In 1957 the Division was renamed General Division.

In 1963 the division divided into two parts which were collectively called General Department. General Division 1 dealt with general economic questions, forecasts of export performance (transferred to Statistics Division in 1964), balance of payments and world trade. The division also included News Branch, concerned with home and overseas trade news and publicity for ministerial and departmental activities. In 1964 this branch was transferred to a new Information Division and a new Economic Research Unit was created in General Division 1 to provide an advisory service for the department as a whole. In 1967 the Economic Research Unit was absorbed within the newly-created Economic Services Division whilst still retaining its separate identity.

General Division 2 dealt with export promotion issues, export credit policy, overseas aid and investment issues, arms exports and export licensing. It was responsible also for overseas commercial intelligence and its dissemination.

In 1965 General Division 3 was set up to deal with the amendment of Local Employment Acts to create new development areas and from the following years, claims for investment grants.

These three divisions were renamed in 1968 to reflect a redistribution of responsibilities among senior staff. The new titles were Economic (General) 1 (formerly GD 1); Export Policy and Promotion (formerly GD 2) and Investment Grants (formerly GD 3).