The History of the Department of Business and Trade

PhD Researcher Emilia Braddon’s PhD Thesis will investigate the history of the Department of Business and Trade from its origins at the Board of Trade in 1780 to the modern DBT which formed in 2023. There is no other department across Whitehall which has experienced such drastic levels of change in its machinery of government and personnel over the last fifty years. In collaboration with the DBT, this thesis will examine the years from 1970 to 2024 considering how these changes have impacted the running of the department and how different leaders have prioritised the trade and business departments to different degrees. The governance of trade has been central to some of the most crucial events of the last fifty years including Heath’s three-day week, entry to the EEC, Thatcher’s privatisation, the Westland Affair and, most recently, Brexit. The work will also consider some of the most significant figures in Department history including Michael Heseltine – who has been interviewed for this PhD – and Peter Mandelson. Through this thesis we hope to be able to reaffirm the departmental identity of the DBT which has become complex after so many name changes and alterations in responsibilities, whilst also re establishing a level of institutional memory which we hope will be beneficial for the department to reflect on when looking for solutions to new problems. There is currently very limited historiography considering the history of this department and this PhD will fill this gap in existing literature.