These happenings had their effect in the Commercial field. India had made vast contributions to the war both in terms of men and money.
The British Rule had adopted many harsh measures to meet the needs of the war which had consumed almost the entire produce – food, cloth as well as fuel. The war time compulsions led to a spate of controls covering production, price, stocks, distribution, imports and exports, tariffs and capital issues affecting every segment of the economy. The control mechanism had its impact on the economic and commercial activity of the period. The crippling effect which the controls and taxes had on the Indian Industries and Trade made the Industrial and Commercial Community feel the need to vent their feeling of grievances in some way.
Though there were other Chambers of Commerce functioning in the then composite State of Madras (named as Madras Presidency comprising the present Andhra, Tamilnadu, Kerala and part of Karanataka States), the need for an additional Chamber to protect and promote the interests of the mercantile community of Tamil Nadu was keenly felt by a number of leading businessmen in the compelling circumstances prevailed then and also in the context of the contemplated formation of linguistic States which were to come up in the near future.
In this atmosphere with a far sighted vision and lofty mission, the Tamil Chamber of Commerce was established by the founding fathers who were great men.