In an old, smoke-blackened sandstone building on Tithe Barn (pronounced tie-barn) Street in Liverpool, the world's biggest cotton exchange operated, before the war. Last week the British Board of Trade announced that the Liverpool Cotton Exchange, closed since 1939 would not reopen. The Government had decided to stay in business as Britain's only cotton importer. Britain's 400 cotton importing firms will go out of business.
The decision was in line with the Socialist Government's aim to control markets and eliminate middlemen. But the theory was not as important as the practical value of bulk buying as a trade weapon. Now smaller cotton-producing...
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