The First Cycle, 1957–61

Before I begin to trace the development of policy, let me briefly explain what my job was, what staff I inherited and how we all fitted into the Treasury. Although I was given the rather grand title of Economic Adviser to HMG, my job in practice was that of a Treasury official advising the Chancellor (or more frequently the Permanent Secretary) on economic and financial affairs. I had the assistance, as Director of the Economic Section of the Treasury, of a group of economists who had been since 1940 the principal source of economic advice to the government.1