Catalogue description Treasury: Exchange Requirements Committee: Minutes and Papers

The Exchange Requirements Committee (ERC) was set up in 1939. Its terms of reference were:

• to approve forthwith new proposals involving the expenditure of money in foreign countries by any Government Department, or if they are unable to approve, to report to the Chancellor with recommendations;
• to proceed as speedily as possible in consultations with the Departments concerned to draw up estimates of requirements in foreign exchange both in the immediate future and over a period of, say, three months ahead.

The ERC was constituted in August 1939 and the bulk of its work was the limitation of Government spending in North America. When Lease Lend and Canadian Mutuel Aid started in 1941, ERC sanctions were not required for purchases within the authorised programmes and Departments were allowed some delegated authority.

The committee appears to have lapsed between July 1942 and January 1944. During the inactive period, the ERC seems to have collected statistics and kept records of Departments expenditure in overseas currencies.