Catalogue description Records of the Economics, Gas, Industrial, Power, Raw Materials and Transport Departments

A General Economic Department was established in 1918, representing an attempt to create an economics intelligence unit at the Board of Trade, which would consider general policy questions extending beyond the sphere of any particular department. Among its concerns were the development and stability of industry, production, imports and exports, monopolies, trade promotion and raw materials, and the economic strength of the country generally.

When the First World War ended, government involvement in the economy decreased and the department's work declined, and in 1919 it was merged with the Industrial Power and Transport Department to form the Power, Transport and Economic Department.

An Industrial Power and Transport Department was set up in 1918 when the Board of Trade underwent reorganisation. It represented a major move by the Board into the promotion and assistance of home, as distinct from overseas, trade. It was responsible for helping industry with the problems facing it during reconstruction. It had to watch the general movement of trade and industry, and to direct the attention of both government and manufacturers to weaknesses and shortcomings, and to frame and consider schemes submitted to it for promoting and safeguarding British industry.

Gas, electricity and water responsibilities were transferred to the department from the Harbour Department. In June 1918 the department in conjunction with the Ministry of Reconstruction, set up a Water-power Resources Committee to examine and report on the water-power resources of the United Kingdom and the extent to which they could be made available for industrial use.

When electricity functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Transport in 1919 and water function to the Ministry of Health, the department's separate existence was no longer justified and it was merged with the General Economic Department to form the Power, Transport and Economic Department. This rapidly became and 'odd-job' department of the Board and was dissolved in March 1922 in accordance with the recommendations of the Geddes Committee. Its functions passed to the Industries and Manufactures Department.

The Industries and Manufactures Department was formed in 1918 to deal with the reconstruction problems affecting British industry. In 1920 it took over the supervision of the Standards Department and in 1922 all remaining functions of the Power, Transport and Economic Department (including economic intelligence). Its water-power functions and responsibility for standards passed to the General Department in 1928 and on 1 January 1960 responsibility for import policy and the Import Licensing Branch was transferred to the Tariff and Import Policy Division. In 1934 it took responsibility for merchandise marks from General Department and resumed responsibility for standards in 1936.

In 1932 it absorbed the office staff and functions of the Chief Industrial Adviser and remained jointly responsible with the Ministry of Labour for the Depressed areas until 1945. It was also responsible for administering various acts of parliament relating to industry, especially those concerning flax, cinematograph films, and dyestuffs. During the Second World War the department was expanded to administer many wartime controls, including clothes rationing and the utility scheme.

Control over electricity supply passed to it from the Ministry of Transport in September 1941, but all its gas and electricity functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Fuel and Power on 11 June 1942.

The Ministry of Munitions Potash Branch and Optical Instruments and Glassware Branch were transferred to the Board of Trade on 1 June 1919, when they formed the Scientific Instruments, Glassware and Potash Production Section of the Industries and Manufactures Department. This section was fully absorbed into the department in 1923.

An Import Licensing Department (later Branch) of the Industries and Manufactures Department was created in 1940 to administer import controls, and continued to do so until the gradual abolition of these controls in the late 1950s.

On 3 December 1945 primary responsibility for engineering passed to the Ministries of Supply and Aircraft Production, while the board remained responsible for general questions of industrial and commercial policy. This included responsibility for the National Research Development Corporation which was set up in 1949 under the Development of Inventions Act 1948. The Priorities Division, whose functions included machine licensing and reconstruction and priorities questions in industry, later became the Industries and Manufactures (Planning and Priorities) Division.

A separate Tourist, Catering and Holiday Services Division, set up in June 1946 when the board became responsible for these services, was absorbed into the Industries and Manufactures Department in December 1947. The department also assimilated the board's functions concerning raw materials when the Raw Materials Department was abolished.

The department was by now very large, but after 1964 its responsibilities for various industries were transferred to the Ministry of Technology and it grew steadily smaller. Computers and machine tools were transferred in 1965, and other mechanical and electrical engineering industries in 1966. Industries Divisions 1 and 2, which dealt with the remaining principal manufacturing industries were transferred in 1969. The department then ceased to exist and its functions relating to consumer protection, the Trade Descriptions Act and hire purchase passed to a General and Industrial Division, and those relating to tourism and films passed to separate Tourism and Film Branches.