Complex sentence: In this era, the experience of Great Britain and others was that the gold standard ran counter to the need to retain domestic policy autonomy--to protect their reserves of gold countries would sometimes need to raise interest rates and generally follow a deflationary policy.
Split into simpler sentences: In this era, the experience of Great Britain and others was that the gold standard ran counter to the need to retain domestic policy autonomy. To protect their reserves of gold countries would sometimes need to raise interest rates and generally follow a deflationary policy.