Stabilizing currency deliberately imposed the costs on workers.

Evidence

A return to currency stability, Hawtrey wrote, entailed “a painful and laborious journey,” and “the painful and laborious journey must be travelled, aft er every indulgence in infl ation … aft er the debauch comes the headache” (Hawtrey 1919a, 375). Once more the burden of this journey fell primarily on the workers through reduced incomes and restricted consumption— both necessary for monetary management to be successful. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 983

Categorization

• XREF: Pre-echoes today’s ‘painful medicine’ rhetoric for rate hikes and austerity; a through-line from Hawtrey’s 1919 framing to modern central-bank talk of ‘necessary pain’. — connects to: Central banks trigger recessions to enforce workers’ acceptance of wage labor. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 39; High interest rates deliberately broke workers’ power to enforce subordination — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154; Financial markets punish governments through currency devaluation and downgrades (financialization’s disciplinary power). — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 548 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Pound revaluation in the 1920s forced down wages through mass unemployment #exemplifies (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1683
• Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 284
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Anti-inflation policies sparing workers require challenging capitalism’s foundations #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 278
• Economists have blamed workers for inflation for over a century #complicates (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 15