The challenges of rebuilding operations between the Sydney and London offices of Angus & Robertson after the Second World War were exacerbated by the tight post-war import and export restrictions between Australian, sterling and dollar areas. Although precisely determining which restrictions altered which conditions of the Australian book trade during the 1940s and 1950s is challenging; the nature of the impact of import licensing emerges most clearly in correspondence between Australian publishers, industry organisations and the Department of Trade and Customs.

During the Second World War, the Division of Import Procurement emphasised how imperative it was that space on ships destined for Australia was ‘conserved only for those commodities considered to be of primary importance to the war effort’. Post-war currency shortages accentuated the need to preserve exchange reserves, and applications for licences to import fiction in paper covered editions – more specifically books in the genres of juveniles, light romance, detectives and westerns – were not made available ‘under any consideration’.