the wall street crash

british trade

• in 1929, the american stock market crashed and britain began to feel the effects of the loss of american markets and the reduction in european trade as other nations also suffered

• between the end of 1929 and 1931, the value of british exports fell by half

• unemployment which was already standing at over one million, continued to rise until it reached 2.5 million by the end of 1931 and almost three million by the end of 1932

the depression

• the depression that followed in the 30s intensified the already existing economic problems that came from the decline in the staple industries

• from 1930, world trade strank with and with it, the demand for british exports , which fell by a third in voolume and a half by value

• exports did not fully recover until after 1937

figures

• cotton exports were prticularly abdly hit : total output was already falling by 1930 ; by 1932 it was less than half the 1913 figure

• in the same period, coal output fell from 238 tonnes to 208 million tonnes

• the tonnage of new ships launched fell from an average of one million a year in the 1920s to 133,00 tonnes in 1933

unemployment

• as a result, unemployment rose to a frightening level in these industries

• by summer 1932, 40 per cent of coal miners were out of work

• 47 percent of steel workers and in shipbuilding, 63% of insured workers were umemployed

• these high levels of unemployment persisted throughout the decade