Board of Trade
The Board of Trade was the British government department responsible for commerce and industry. It originated as a committee of the Privy Council. A written answer by Michael Heseltine in December 1992 recorded that, under the Order in Council of 23 August 1786, the Board was appointed "to deal with all matters relating to trade and foreign plantations". The official history of its successor department treated the Board of Trade as existing from 1621 until 1970. The Cabinet minister in charge was the President of the Board of Trade.
Import licences in the 1940s
After the Second World War the Board administered a system of import licences and other controls, a legacy of wartime regulation which had also included clothes rationing. In a Commons debate on 5 November 1946, John Belcher, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board, told the House that, "with the exception of food", it was the Board of Trade that was "responsible for the import programme" and that "operates the import licensing machinery". The Lynskey Tribunal later recorded that licences were granted "only ... for the import of goods when such goods are specially identified and the source of supply is known" (Cmd. 7616, para. 197).
Belcher, Labour MP for Sowerby, went to the Board at the beginning of 1946. The Tribunal found that he had accepted gifts and hospitality from Sidney Stanley, and wines and spirits from the Glasgow distiller Sir Maurice Bloch, and had used his position at the Board to help them. In Bloch's case, the help consisted of intervening to secure licences to import sherry casks from the United States, which had to be paid for in scarce dollars. In Stanley's case, Belcher gave him "free access" to his private office and met people Stanley wished to introduce, and, because of the gifts, assisted them in matters that came before the Board, including a factory at Margate and a hotel licence at Bognor Regis. The Tribunal did not find against the Board's permanent secretary, Sir John Woods, or against other ministers at the department.
Later history
On 19 October 1970 the Board was merged with the Ministry of Technology to form the Department of Trade and Industry.