British debt in 1918 is about £7.8 billion, of which £1.28 billion is international and £6.52 billion internal. The total is roughly 140 percent of national GDP. American holdings account for a substantial part of the external debt. In this interpretation, that burden does not establish that Britain was compelled to abandon naval construction. Conditions after the Depression, the Second World War and the end of Lend-Lease should not be projected backwards onto 1918. France and Italy also faced heavy debts in circumstances that differed from the later postwar situation.
Chapter · 6:11-8:51
British war debt and the limits of financial compulsion
The debt argument distinguishes Britain after the First World War from its much later financial circumstances.