The Treasury and Bank of England used monetary austerity to block the miners’ movement

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

In the aftermath of the Great War, significant portions of the population in countries such as Britain and Italy were embracing concrete institutional transformations. What halted the transition toward greater economic democracy was an expert-driven campaign to code austerity as an objective resolution to the crisis of capitalism. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 161 (#expands, via linked claim)

To defeat infl ation and to fully rein in the purchasing power of workers, fi scal austerity was to be supplemented by monetary austerity. Th e latter meant a direct and deliberate credit contraction through an increase in interest rates, which would defl ate prices and in turn boost confi dence in the value of the currency. Th is was the core of the socalled policy of “dear money” (Resolution VII, Commission on Currency and Exchange, Brussels 1920, vol. 1, 19). Vissering declared: “the purchasing power of money [can], by way of remedy, be forced up somewhat by making money scarce” (Verbatim Record, Brussels 1920, vol. 2, 45). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 757 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Postwar IMF Keynesianism concealed classical liberal assumptions derived from 1920s Treasury logic — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 443; The antiwaste campaign against public spending anchored austerity at the British Treasury — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 327; Treasury concerns about fiscal balances defeated mine nationalization in 1919 — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 411 (+14 more)

Related

• Monetary austerity deliberately aimed to rein in workers’ purchasing power (similarity 0.86)
• Miners’ alliance with the state sealed their defeat through austerity (similarity 0.86)
• The antiwaste campaign against public spending anchored austerity at the British Treasury (similarity 0.86)
• Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment (similarity 0.86)
• Monetary austerity, by raising sterling, crushed British exports and unions (similarity 0.85)
• Austerity directly reversed wartime gains in workers’ wages and bargaining power (similarity 0.85)
• Monetary austerity crushed British trade and union power through unemployment (similarity 0.84)
• Treasury officials opposed spending because it blocked wage and price deflation (similarity 0.84)
• Monetary deflation was the decisive instrument that defeated British labor. (similarity 0.83)
• Stabilizing currency deliberately imposed the costs on workers. (similarity 0.83)
• Britain’s gold-standard austerity doubled unemployment from 10.4 to 22.1 percent (similarity 0.83)
• WWI mobilization taught British workers society could change, prompting austerity’s backlash. (similarity 0.82)
• Post-WWI austerity was deployed to block moves toward economic democracy. (similarity 0.82)
• Austerity was designed to reverse workers’ revolutionary wartime and postwar gains (similarity 0.81)
• Monetary and fiscal austerity reinforce each other reciprocally (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Post-WWI austerity was deployed to block moves toward economic democracy. #expands (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 161
• Stabilizing currency deliberately imposed the costs on workers. #expands (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 983
• Monetary austerity deliberately aimed to rein in workers’ purchasing power #expands (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 757
• Bank of England reclaimed monetary control to evade accountability for austerity’s unemployment costs #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1018
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Unelected Treasury technocrats orchestrated British austerity without facing re-election #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 829
• Treasury officials opposed spending because it blocked wage and price deflation #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1695
• Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 284
• Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1670
• Austerity is state intervention that transfers resources from workers to capital #expands (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 195