> From what I understand the UK allowed it because ... I'd say "severe post-WWII money shortage". After wartime expansion, the global copper industry could ph

> From what I understand the UK allowed it because ... I'd say "severe post-WWII money shortage". After wartime expansion, the global copper industry could physically meet peacetime demands. But the UK was very close to national bankruptcy. And the Luftwaffe had turned an awful lot of their prewar housing into rubble. So - any cost that could be cut, was.