DECLINE OF STAPLE INDUSTRIES AND THE GENERAL STRIKE OF 1926

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DECLINE OF STAPLE INDUSTRIES AND THE GENERAL STRIKE OF 1926

DECLINE OF STAPLE INDUSTRIES AND THE GENERAL STRIKE OF 1926

K. O. Morgan (Wales 1880 -1980) argues that "it is clear that the War marked an immediate break with the past, in social and ultimately in political terms. In no part of the British Isles was the contrast between pre- and post-war conditions more pronounced than in Wales".

The governments of the 1920s had similar aims and policies with regards to unemployment. They believed that they could best help by trying to restore pre-1914 conditions. That meant reviving the freemarket economy at home, while seeking to restore the international financial and trading system abroad. As far as the government was concerned private enterprise was the main agent of economic recovery and after November 1918, state controls over the economy were rapidly demolished. The government also saw high wages as a hindrance to economic recovery as high wages resulted in higher prices and a consequent loss of foreign trade. Despite a number of strikes over wage levels, by 1923 wage rates were on average down to nearly two-thirds of their 1920 level. A further government initiative to reduce high prices and encourage trade to recover was to reduce government expenditure. Lloyd George followed such a policy as did successive governments. As a result government expenditure was cut by about a quarter in real terms, some of the national debt was paid off and taxes were reduced a little. Whilst cuts in taxation were a help to an economy in depression, unfortunately they also tended to reduce the level of domestic demand for industrial goods. Government policy therefore was probably making unemployment worse.

From 1923 to the latter years of the 1930's parts of Wales and England suffered from a prolonged economic depression and this was especially true of the coalfield areas. They experienced mass unemployment – more than 2 million people were unemployed throughout this period - and poverty without equal in Britain, a depression, hopelessness and despair that crushed their society and left deep scars on the consciousness of the people who lived through the depths of the Depression.

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In 1918 there was not a traditional election. David Lloyd George decided to fight the election as a coalition government. Lloyd George had formed the coalition government in 1916 to fight the war. The supporters of the coalition tended to be the Conservative party members and Lloyd George Liberals. David Lloyd George was popular and the coalition government won 478 seats in the House of Commons. There were huge problems for Lloyd George to deal with following the war. He had promised a ‘land fit for heroes’ and that was going to be a difficult trick to perform. Initially he had to deal ...

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