Doing Business across the Iron Curtain: Trade and Financial Relations between the United Kingdom and Hungary, 1945–1956

Abstract

Abstract This article explores economic relations between the United Kingdom and Hungary between 1944 and 1956. After the Second World War, the UK attempted to maintain some of its influence in Soviet-occupied Hungary by resuming trade relations with the country as early as 1946. Financial discussions around settling Hungary’s debts began a year later, but they ended abruptly in December 1949. British-Hungarian trade and financial talks resumed only in 1953, and a trade agreement was not signed until June 1956. In addition to providing an outline of British-Hungarian economic relations, this article also assesses the relationship between a relatively small country in the Soviet sphere of influence and the United Kingdom, as well as the role of economic diplomacy in East-West relations in the first decade of the Cold War.