page_title: Economic history of the United Kingdom
section_title: 1929–1939: the Great Depression
hierarchical_section_title: Economic history of the United Kingdom / 1900–1945 / 1929–1939: the Great Depression
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Grosse Arbeitslosigkeit auch in England&#160;! Im Monat Juli wurden in England über 2 Millionen Arbeitslose gezählt. Es ist eine Ziffer, wie sie England noch nicht aufzuweisen hatte. Arbeitslose vor dem Gewerkschaftshaus in London auf Arbeit wartend.
context_page_description: The economic history of the United Kingdom relates the economic development in the British state from the absorption of Wales into the Kingdom of England after 1535 to the modern United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the early 21st century.
  Scotland, England, and Wales shared a monarch from 1601 but their economies were run separately until they were unified in the 1707 Act of Union. Ireland was incorporated in the United Kingdom economy between 1800 and 1920; from 1921 the Irish Free State became independent and set its own economic policy.
  Great Britain, and England in particular, became one of the most prosperous economic regions in Europe between 1600 and 1700, Industrialisation in the UK from the mid-eighteenth century resulted in economic developments described by many historians as the British industrial revolution. These developments resulted in Britain becoming one of the premier economies in Europe during the first half of the 19th century, the most prominent industrial power in the world economy, and a major political power. Its industrialists were major innovators in machinery such as steam engines, textile equipment, and tool-making.
context_section_description: While the Wall St Crash of 1929 had little direct impact on the British stock market, the collapse of the American economy which it had foretold and the associated contraction of world trade seriously affected Britain in the early 1930s.  Whereas British politicians had championed the concept of the free market when it was ascendant in the world economy, it gradually withdrew to adopting Tariff Reform as a measure of protectionism. In 1933 Sterling left the Gold Standard. By the early 1930s, the depression again signalled the economic problems the British economy faced. Unemployment soared during this period; from just over 10% in 1929 to more than 20% (or more than 3 million of the workforce) by early 1933. However, it had fallen to 13.9% by the start of 1936. While heavy industry sank to new lows, the consumer industry recovered by 1934 and production increased by 32% between 1933 and 1937. A good indication of the strong consumer market was the growth of retailers during the 1930s. Marks & Spencer, for example, increased its turnover from £2.5 million in 1929 to over £25 million in 1939, necessitating the opening of dozens of new locations to serve the burgeoning demand in the suburbs.
  In 1929 Ramsay MacDonald formed his second minority Labour Party government. In political terms, the economic problems found expression in the rise of radical movements who promised solutions which conventional political parties appeared unable to provide. In Britain this was seen with the rise of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Fascists under Oswald Mosley. However, their political strength was limited and unlike in the rest of Europe, the conventional political parties did not face a significant challenge. In 1931 the Labour Government resigned having failed to agree cuts in national expenditure, disagreeing over the extent of cuts in welfare payments, to be replaced by a McDonald-led National Government. The Conservatives, which provided the majority of its MPs, was returned to power in 1935.
caption: Unemployed people in front of a workhouse in London, 1930
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