Britain During The Inter-war Years Essay

After the First area War Britain suffered economically. This was due to its material export sales being trim back as trade was severely disrupted in the war years encouraging customers to ca-ca elsewhere for their goods much(prenominal)(prenominal) as lacquer and other countries who took advantage of Britains dubiety and added taxes to their imports. Britain was in addition in debt by matchless million pounds owed to other countries, which did not protagonist the situation.The prototypic major slump began some 1921 when over two million populate were jobless this was partly due to some(prenominal) men being injured in the war over one and a half million men from the unify Kingdom alone were permanently alter by wounds or the effects of gas. as well Britain saw a large diminution in their traditional exports such as coal, iron or steel which resulted in many jobs being forfeited.The coal exertion was being left behind by oil, electricity and gas, these could be obt ained cheaper or still for free from other countries like Poland where push was cheaper and Germany who were still in debt for the reparations of the First gentlemans gentleman War. Suprisingly though Britain recovered quicker and more than so than many of the other countries such as America, France and Belgium, it is argued that this was powered by residential construction and the newer developing industries against rearmament for the Second humanness War.In the depressed areas of Britain Scotland, Lancashire Northern Ireland and southward Wales unemployment and poverty were common and part of general life. Most of these areas were executioning class where its inhabitants testament acquire been employed in the dwindling industries such as shipping and textiles and at that time there was no choice work avail equal. The regime tried dissimilar ways to try and raise funds, they decided to reduce the wages paid to the hardly a(prenominal) pile who were still working to come through more funds to support the unemployed unfortunately this save succeeded to depress plurality further and hike up strikes.The government even off tried to cut their own expense this would have involved a reduction in the pay of teachers and funding to schools and hospitals. They also returned to gold standard in April 1925 this make exports expensive but did make imports cheaper. They thusly raised income tax and reduced unemployment benefits by ten percent the bank range were also reduced to a humble two- percent lowering the interest pull in on money saved.Two rent-free commissioners were taken on to try and bring back the worst hit areas this was said to have little or no effect. The government then set out to encourage new businesses by offering reduced rates, rent and income tax, this was effective but only in providing lightweight factory work mainly directed at women to maintain the all new electrical goods such as parts for irons, radios and light bulb s.This meant that people had more extra cash to go across on consumer goods and more people were able to go on holiday for the first time or even acquire their own home, this was encouraged by the go cost of construction materials and cheaper borrowing as the interest rates dropped. This triggered a beckon of house building to meet the change magnitude demand, which in turn created many manual(a) male orientated jobs and also increase the demand for household goods such as furniture and telephones.