The problems with exports were only made worse by the decision to go back on the gold standard after the war, the pound, according to some experts, was overpriced by 10%, leading to further losses in the sales of various staple exports from Britain.
These loss of sales caused loss in profits for the industry owners, they blamed the loss on high wages, that were kept the same during the war, they attempted to lower wages and consequently strained the relationship between themselves and the workforce. Loss in profits also lead to mass unemployment, this again only worsened the economic situation further.
Another big event was in June 1925, Britain had experienced a brief rise in export sales after German mines in the Ruhr were closed during French occupation. However this ended and there was a sudden drop in the sales of British exports. Coal exports fell from 65 million tons a year to 43 million tons and the industry was losing £1 million a month. As usual the workers were expected to pay for the crisis. Baldwin summed up the employers' position when he said, 'All workers of this country have got to take a reduction in wages to get this country on its feet'. However the miners protested and threatened action. The Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was the largest and strongest union in the country with 800,000 members. Their leader was A J Cook, the most radical trade union leader Britain has ever seen. The miners were to be the first group of workers to fall under Baldwin's axe. On 30 June 1925 the mine owners announced their intention of ending the National Wages Agreement fixed in 1924. This would have led to the breakup of national pay bargaining and to wage cuts. Fearful that the rest of the trade union movement would suffer the same treatment, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) responded to massive pressure from ordinary rank and file trade unionists, and agreed to support the miners by placing a restriction on the movement of coal.
Baldwin was forced to back down and saved the situation. He gave a nine month cash subsidy to the mine owners to keep the wages at the existing levels until a royal commission under Sir Herbert Samuel could come up with a more permanent solution. This was viewed as a victory by miners and was labelled “Red Friday.” However now some trade unionists took Baldwin’s actions a sign that to get what they wanted a treat of a strike was all that was needed, when, in reality the government was making preparations so that this couldn’t happen again.
The next cause was the outcome of the Samuel Commission. It made recommendations such as removing the subsidy’s, not lengthening working hours, miners accepting some wage reductions. However neither the miners nor the mine owners accepted this agreement and an agreement was not reached.
The daily mail newspaper also did not help the situation by claiming that the coal miners wanted a communist revolution similar to that of Russia. However the printers refused to print the article and a strike began there too. Despite this still rumours leaked out.
After this Baldwin stopped all negotiations as nothing was working, he decided the only way forward was to let the situation play out.
Overall I think that the biggest factor that caused the General Strike was the economic situation Britain was faced with after the war. Some unforgivable decisions were made such as returning to the gold standard and allowing mine owners to neglect more modern ways of producing coal. These all contributed to the economic situation and eventually loss of employment, loss of profits, which only leads to a worse situation with more unemployment and less sales. Britain was under prepared, and relied too heavily on its exports, the economic situation led to a crippled relationship between miners and mine owners, and with factors such as the Triple Alliance meaning other industries would support others when needed or when in fear that their troubles might affect them a General Strike in my opinion was too likely.
Sheri Matthews, GA7