Techno-nationalism, the Post Office and the Creation of Britain's National Giro

Abstract

This chapter investigates the early years of Britain’s National Giro, which opened for business in 1968. We place its establishment and development in the wider political, social and economic context, addressing commercial and technological issues at a time when techno-nationalist and wider macro-management concerns were strong. The National Giro was established as a state-owned financial institution, rare in Britain. It was designed to function from the outset on a computerised basis, representing a key element in the techno-nationalist stance of Harold Wilson’s governments, promoting the ‘white heat of the scientific revolution’, which sought to nurture the British computer industry against American competition.