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1621 |
Privy Council directed by the King "to take into their consideration, the true causes of the decay of trade and scarcity of coyne within the Kingdom and to consult the means for the removing of these inconveniences". As a result a committee of enquiry was set up named 'The Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations' (this is still the formal title of the 'Board of Trade') and this committee can be regarded as the germ of the Board of Trade.
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries trade matters remained the responsibility of Privy Council Committees.
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1696 |
William III set up a body of eight paid Commissioners "for promoting the trade of our Kingdom and for inspecting and improving our plantations in America and elsewhere".
Work on the plantations increasingly occupied the Board although it also had long periods of inactivity. After 1761, the Board of Trade was in chaos and, with the coming to power of the Rockingham Whigs in 1782, was abolished.
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1784 |
William Pitt recreated a Committee on Trade and Plantations by Order in Council. On 23 August 1786 this Committee was put on a formal basis by a further Order in Council. This 1786 Order still remains in force. A secretariat was set up; President, Vice President and Board members appointed.
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1820 |
The Board ceased to meet regularly about 1820 because the President found he could dispatch business more effectively without the committee. In fact no quorum has ever been laid down and the President had the right to transact all business by himself.
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1850 |
The last formal meeting of the Board of Trade took place on 23 December. It has met only once since in 1986 (see below)
The Board's main function during the early nineteenth century was to advise the Crown on matters relating to economic activity in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. During the second half of the nineteenth century the Board also became responsible for new legislation on such matters as patents, designs and trade marks, company regulation, labour and factory matters, control of merchant shipping, mines. agriculture, transport, power and so on. While it retained its interest in internal and foreign trade, its control of colonial matters had passed to the Colonial Office by mid-nineteenth century.
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1889 |
Board of Agriculture re-created (taking over Fisheries in 1903).
During the twentieth century the greater intervention of the state in commercial and industrial affairs led to specialised functions being separated off into new ministries.
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1918 |
Ministry of Labour created.
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1920 |
Ministry of Transport created (excluding merchant shipping).
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1938 |
Ministry of Food created.
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1939 |
The Board's merchant shipping functions passed to the Ministry of Transport.
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1942 |
The Ministry of Fuel and Power created.
Despite the syphoning off of certain specialised functions, the Board still remained responsible for the country's economic life as a whole, whilst at the same time acquiring many new functions such as location of industry, control of monopolies, consumer protection and a major share in the work of sponsoring contacts between industry and government.
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1964 |
The Board re-acquired responsibility for merchant shipping.
The Ministry of Technology was formed partly from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and partly from the Board of Trade.
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1966 |
Board took over responsibility for the regulation of civil aviation from the Ministry of Aviation, and also acquired the duty of administering the legislation on investment grants.
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1969 |
On 6th October the Ministry of Power was absorbed into the Ministry of Technology. The Board of Trade's remaining industrial sponsorship functions were also transferred to the Ministry of Technology and competition policy went to the Department of Employment and Productivity.
Thus, from its beginning as a more or less temporary Committee of Inquiry, the Board of Trade gradually evolved. Firstly it developed into a Standing Council with a comprehensive reference, but without executive powers, and secondly, by many gradual stages, into a complex organic structure whose members became a highly technical department charged with executive duties, overshadowing the original consultative functions of the Board.
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1970 |
The Department of Trade and Industry came into being on the 20th October of that year. This new department united the trade and industrial policy functions previously carried out by the Board of Trade, and the Ministry of Technology. The new Secretary of State, however, retained the title of President of the Board of Trade.
The Board of Trade still remains in existence for legal reasons despite the changes which have taken place since 1970. Similarly the Secretary of State retains the title of President.
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