Monetary and other theories

Abstract

Abstract For many of the inhabitants of England, the armistice gave hopes of a new beginning, the start of a period of peace and prosperity in the ‘Homes Fit For Heroes’ which would be provided for all those who had fought in the war. Less certain was the precise mechanism through which this would be achieved. Problems of demobilising the servicemen and women, of dismantling munitions and other war time industries and returning them to peacetime production, and of facing the enormous shortage of housing after years of neglect and lack of new building all gave some sense of the problems which lay in store. Despite the boom of the first year of peace, signs of impending disaster were soon growing. The backlog of demand for various goods in short supply during the war was accompanied by high government spending and the lifting of wartime controls and soon demand outstripped production, prices and labour costs rose and after April 1920 the boom developed into a ‘speculative ramp’.