Appeasement as an industrial strategy, 1938–41

Abstract

During the late 1930s the British government developed an industrial strategy centring on state‐private industry co‐operation in search of a domestic and international economy characterised by cartelisation. Chamberlain had understood that Anglo‐German detente was essential to the success of this policy, and his administration therefore facilitated negotiations prior to the war and allowed covert contacts between industrialists from the two countries to continue after its outbreak. This benevolence did not extend beyond May 1940, given the Churchill Coalition's commitment to total war, not to mention the emerging consensus in favour of economic expansion under which the word ‘cartel’ became a term of abuse.