The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill (1925)

Abstract

The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill originated as a series of three articles on England's return to the gold standard which appeared in the Evening Standard, 22, 23 and 24 July 1925, under the heading ‘Unemployment and Monetary Policy’. Keynes expanded these into the pamphlet which was published the same month by the Hogarth Press of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, chapters I, III and V corresponding to the Evening Standard articles. In the United States the pamphlet was published as The Economic Consequences of Sterling Parity. For Essays in Persuasion Keynes condensed the material of the whole pamphlet.WHY UNEMPLOYMENT IS WORSEWorld trade and home consumption are both moderately good—running on a level keel, midway between slump and boom. The United States has had a year of abundant prosperity; India and the Dominions are doing fairly well; in France and Italy unemployment is non-existent or negligible; and in Germany during the last six months the numbers receiving the dole have decreased rapidly, by more than half, to 4–5 per cent against our 10 per cent. The aggregate of world production is probably greater than at any time since 1914. Therefore our troubles are not due either to world-wide depression or to reduced consumption at home. And it is obvious what does cause them. It is a question of relative price here and abroad. The prices of our exports in the international market are too high. About this there is no difference of opinion.