Chapter 6

Question 1

How much had shell production increased by from 1915 to 1918?

Answer 1

Two million shells to 187 million shells

Question 2

What economic movement were the government forced to move away from?

Answer 2

Laissez-faire

Question 3

What was the impact of the war effort on people?

Answer 3

Prices were pushed up and there were shortages of both munitions and workers

Question 4

What did one factory in Leeds produce and how many workers did it have?

Answer 4

25 million shells a year and 16,000 workers

Question 5

How many factories and workers did the Ministry of Munitions control by 1918?

Answer 5

250 State factories, 20,000 factories and 4 million workers

Question 6

What else did the Ministry of Munitions control?

Answer 6

Prices, wages, profits, essential food rations and fuel

Question 7

What did the Department of Food Production control?

Answer 7

Subsidies from farmers to plough up wasteland and allocate scarce fertilisers

Question 8

How much did government spending increase from 1913 to 1918?

Answer 8

£200 million to £2600 million

Question 9

How did workers actually benefit from the war?

Answer 9

Many unskilled workers now had bargaining power due to labour shortages, fall in working class mortality, fall in poor relief applications

Question 10

Why did the war worsen housing situations?

Answer 10

All resources were focused on the war, overpopulation in industrial towns

Question 11

Why did Addison’s 1919 Housing Act fail?

Answer 11

He was paying for houses at £910 a house rather than the estimated £385

Question 12

What shortage of houses were there in 1922?

Answer 12

800,000

Question 13

What was the impact of Gedde’s Axe?

Answer 13

£46.5 million was cut from the armed series, £18.2 million cut from education, 1920 Agriculture Act repealed

Question 14

How many strikes were there in 1917?

Answer 14

48 strikes

Question 15

What did the ‘Treasury Agreement’ of 1914 specify?

Answer 15

It agreed unions involved in vital war work would not strike

Question 16

What very large union was created in the early 1920s?

Answer 16

Transport and General Worker’s Union led by Ernest Bevin

Question 17

What did the Conservative-dominated coalition refuse?

Answer 17

The Sankey Commission’s recommendation to nationalise coal mines, troops and tanks

Question 18

What was steel’s position in the post-war economy?

Answer 18

By 1921, it was clear that there was overinvestment during the war

Question 19

What was shipping’s position in the post-war economy?

Answer 19

Britain built 2 million tops of shipping during the war but in the post-war only needed to produce 0.5 million

Question 20

What was coal’s position in the post-war economy?

Answer 20

In 1918, Poland and Germany were now producing more and electricity and oil had become rival energy sources

Question 21

What was the position of trade post-war?

Answer 21

In 1919-20 there was a short-term increase in exports but by 1922 there was an unfavourable trade balance