1. like America's own extraordinary export position in the same period, reflected the laying low of nearly all its commercial rivals by the war (not least, the industrial colossus that was Germany), and inevitably receded as those rivals recovered and made new progress. Still, it is worth recalling that after that recovery, in the far more competitive world of the mid-1970s, Britain still managed a surplus in the 4 percent of GDP range in the mid-1970s, and even after the shocks of Thatcher's first year in office, a robust 2 percent or so of GDP in 1980 (some �5.4 billion on a GDP of �259.7 billion in that year). See Robert Rowthorn and Kenneth Coutts;1950 Britain's trade surplus in manufacturing exceeded 10 percent of GDP. A high figure which it must be remembered was three times the pre-war norm, that figure,1993