General Introduction

The purpose of this work is to discover how large firms in the United Kingdom set their export prices in the months following the 14.3 per cent devaluation of sterling on 18 November 1967, and during the period of floating exchange rates of 1972–3. The method adopted, to be discussed in detail below, was that of interviewing executives with leading firms. Issues raised by the experiences of the individual firms are discussed later in the book; the particular concern is to establish as far as the evidence permits why firms acted as they did, and whether the decisions taken appear to have been in any sense optimal for the individual firm and the country as a whole.