Labor shortage forced Britain to abandon free-market wage distribution

Evidence

It followed that the prewar tradition of selfregulation and industrial autonomy had to be abandoned in favor of forceful state regulation. As observed by Humbert Wolfe, controller of the laborregulation department at the British Ministry of Munitions, “[l]abour ceased to be a commodity to which the laws of supply and demand applied” (Wolfe 1923, 102). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 153

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Wartime necessity forced both Britain and Italy to abandon free-market capitalist dogma.; British wartime and postwar wage growth outpaced a full century of prior gains — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 359; Postwar British workers commanded a historically unprecedented share of national income — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1485 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Think tanks slowly displaced Keynesianism with free-market doctrine in Britain #qualifies (0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1108