Published by Primary Source Microfilm

This collection offers selected files from the private office of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer during a period of major turmoil in the national and international economy. They demonstrate vividly the reaction of both government and the economic establishment in Britain to mass unemployment, the world slump, and the Keynesian revolution in economics.

The material is divided into two sections. Part One includes analyses of the international financial situation, the rise of the U.S. as a major financial power and the economic development of Nazi Germany. It is also concerned with international economic policy, especially the notorious return to the Gold Standard in 1925, and includes the papers of several international economic conferences in the 1930s.

Part Two contains the files in which the British Treasury re-enacted the "new deals" proposed by Keynes and Lloyd George to "conquer" mass unemployment. It also provides the actual records of deputations of the Chancellor from the major industrial organizations, such as the Federation of British Industries and the Trades Union Congress. This material reveals the full extent of the industrial and political restraint within which the Treasury worked, as well as its public defense of orthodox economic policy.

Part One: International Finance Situation and Policy, 1916-1943
20 reels

Part Two: Domestic, Monetary and Unemployment Policy, 1919-1943, including Deputations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1919-1941
18 reels

Complete collection: 38 reels