Excerpt from Unemployment: The Cause and a Remedy But now let us see what happened inst about. 12 months ago, viz., March '1920. After this brief period of prosperity the country was startled by the sudden announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (mr. Austen Chamberlain) that the Government had set its heart upon gradually deflating the currency and he called upon the bankers to assist him in restricting credit. The bank rate was advanced to 7 per cent. And the game of squeezing industry for the benefit of bond-holders and money-lenders commenced. It was no mere coincidence that the trade slump started the very 'da this amazing speech of the Chancellor was pu lished. Realising that this deflation policy meant the slaughter of all values, the destruction of all enterprise. A drastic tall in prices and wholesale bankruptcy, the country took alarm and played for safety: No one cares to buy goods on a falling market. Orders began to be cancelled! Stocks 'were offered at prices below cost. The public de mand commenced. To slacken! Many workmen were put on short time whilst thousands more were discharged. And with the decrease in wages the public ability to buy goods also decreased. The idea that a policy of this nature could be under taken without' a disaster to trade and industry, that. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.