The Treasury’s campaign for department-wide spending cuts persisted for years and reached all ministries.

Evidence

Th ese demands for economy persisted for years. A confi dential circular communication of 1923 “on the subject of economy” (also called “the economy letter” or “the Treasury circular on economy”), sent from the Treasury to all departments, including the board of Education, the Ministry of Labour, and the Ministry of Pensions asking for their expenditure and aggregate savings estimates, communicated that “every eff ort in economy will therefore be needed in order to balance the budget in 1924/25” (N. F. Warren Fisher, June 1, 1923, T 160/159). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1693

Categorization

• XREF: The Treasury’s cross-departmental economy circular of 1923 echoes the machinery of modern austerity as an administrative imposition rather than democratic choice. — connects to: Unelected Treasury technocrats orchestrated British austerity without facing re-election — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 829