Treasury officials opposed spending because it blocked wage and price deflation

Evidence

Blackett warned the chancellor that any form of government expenditure would prevent wages and costs of living from going down. In his words, “So long as the British government is creating new credit to meet its expenditure or to replace maturing short debt, there is added diffi culty in getting prices and wages and the cost of living down to reasonable fi gures” (August 6, 1921, T 175/6 part 1, fol. 15). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1695

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete mechanism for austerity as class weapon — spending blocked the wage-reduction program interwar Britain wanted; ties to Mattei’s core thesis. — connects to: The Treasury and Bank of England used monetary austerity to block the miners’ movement; Interwar currency conferences prescribed government spending cuts as currency stabilization — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1683; Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1670

Broader Connections

• Interwar Treasury officials directly linked monetary austerity to unemployment #expands (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1670