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Instead, the United States would “lend” the supplies to the British, deferring payment. When payment eventually did take place, the emphasis would not be on payment in dollars. The tensions and instability engendered by inter-allied war debts in the 1920s and 1930s had demonstrated that it was unreasonable to expect that virtually bankrupt European nations would be able to pay for every item they had purchased from the United States. Instead, payment would primarily take the form of a “consideration” granted by Britain to the United States. After many months of negotiation, the United States and Britain agreed, in Article VII of the [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0092BR2EK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0092BR2EK&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=cc04c003fc32fb0c4005c64f990d1298 Lend-Lease agreement ] they signed, that this consideration would primarily consist of joint action directed towards the creation of a liberalized international economic order in the postwar world.

The United Kingdom was not the only nation to strike such a deal with the United States. Over the course of the war, the United States contracted Lend-Lease agreements with more than 30 countries, dispensing some $50 billion in assistance. Although British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later referred to the initiative as “the most unsordid act” one nation had ever done for another, Roosevelt’s primary motivation was not altruism or disinterested generosity.