The great depression information经济萧条
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大萧条The Great Depression历史影响大萧条的影响比历史上任何一次经济衰退都要来得深远。
这次经济萧条是以农产品价格下跌为起点:首先发生在木材的价格上(1928年),这主要是由于苏联的木材竞争的缘故;但更大的灾难是在1929年到来,加拿大小麦的过量生产,美国强迫压低所有农产品产地基本谷物的价格。
不管是欧洲、美洲还是澳大利亚,农业衰退由于金融的大崩溃而进一步恶化,尤其在美国,一股投机热导致大量资金从欧洲抽回,随后在1929年10月发生了令人恐慌的华尔街股市暴跌。
1931年法国银行家黑色星期五时人流攒动的华尔街(1929年)收回了给奥地利银行的贷款,但这并不足以偿还债务。
这场灾难使中欧和东欧许多国家的制度破产了:它导致了德国银行家为了自保,而延期偿还外债,进而也危及到了在德国有很大投资的英国银行家。
资本的短缺,在所有的工业化国家中,都带来了出口和国内消费的锐减:没有市场必然使工厂关闭,货物越少,货物运输也就越少,这必然会危害船运业和造船业。
在所有国家中,经济衰退的后果是大规模失业:美国1370万,德国560万,英国280万(1932年的最大数据)。
大萧条对拉丁美洲也有重大影响,使得在一个几乎被欧美银行家和商人企业家完全支配的地区失去了外资和商品出口。
原因经济大衰退(1929年—1933年),经济学界有各种各样的商业循环理论,在分析大萧条的原因时,众说纷纭,莫衷一是。
对于萧条原因最好的说明,也许就是一个或几个社会集团支出减少的幅度超过了其它社会集团支出增加的幅度。
1929年,消费者购买了国民生产总值的72%,工商业者投资消费了18%,美国各联邦、州和地方政府使用了略少于10%,其余的用于出口。
在1929—1930年,由于投资者和消费者减少了大约一百五十亿美元的支出,国民生产总值的支出约减少了一百四十亿美元。
政府支出虽稍有增加,但其影响微不足道。
反映投资和消费支出有所减少的是:劳动力市场上解雇和失业增多了,工商业的销售额和利润降低了。
The Great DepressionIntroductionThe Great Depression is considered one of the most significant economic downturns in the history of the United States and the Western world. Lasting from 1929 to the late 1930s, this severe economic crisis hadfar-reaching consequences not only for the American economy but also for global economies. In this article, we will explore the causes, impact, and legacy of the Great Depression.Causes of the Great Depression1.Stock Market Crash of 1929:–The economic turmoil began with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday.–Stock prices plummeted, leading to a massive loss of wealth for investors and the collapse of many banks.2.Overproduction and Underconsumption:–The 1920s witnessed rapid industrialization and an increase in production capacity.–However, wages did not rise at the same pace, leading to a growing gap between the rich and the poor.–As a result, a significant portion of the population could not afford to buy the goods produced, leading tooverproduction and a decline in demand.3.Decline in Agricultural Prices:–Farmers, already grappling with overproduction and falling prices in the 1920s, were hit hard during the GreatDepression.–The Dust Bowl phenomenon worsened the situation, as severe droughts and soil erosion devastated farmlands in theMidwest.4.Bank Failures and Credit Crunch:–The stock market crash resulted in many banks suffering significant losses.–People began to panic and withdrew their money from banks, leading to a wave of bank runs and subsequent bank failures.–The lack of credit availability further exacerbated the economic crisis.Impact of the Great Depression1.Unemployment and Poverty:–The Great Depression resulted in soaring unemployment rates, with nearly 25% of Americans without jobs during the peak ofthe crisis.–Many families fell into poverty, struggling to meet their basic needs and facing homelessness.2.Business Failures:–Numerous businesses, both large and small, collapsed during the Great Depression.–The combination of decreased demand, credit shortages, and financial instability led to widespread bankruptcies.3.Global Economic Contraction:–The economic decline in the United States spread to other countries, with international trade shrinking significantly.–Countries heavily dependent on exports, such as Germany, experienced severe economic downturns.4.Social and Psychological Impact:–The Great Depression had a profound impact on individuals’ mental well-being.–Suicide rates increased, and there was a general feeling of hopelessness and despair among the population.Government Response and Recovery Efforts1.The New Deal:–President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented a series of economic relief and reform measures known as the New Deal.–The New Deal aimed to provide immediate relief to those suffering, stimulate economic recovery, and implement long-term reforms to prevent future crises.2.Expansion of Government Intervention:–The Great Depression marked a turning point in the role of government in the economy.–The federal government took on a more active role,implementing regulations, creating social safety nets, andpromoting economic stability.3.Public Works Projects:–The New Deal included various public works projects, such as the construction of infrastructure, aimed at creating jobsand stimulating economic growth.4.World War II:–The outbreak of World War II ultimately ended the Great Depression.–The war stimulated industrial production and createdemployment opportunities, pulling the economy out of thedepression.Legacy of the Great Depression1.Regulatory Reforms:–The Great Depression led to the establishment of financial regulations to prevent another economic catastrophe.–The Glass-Steagall Act, for example, separated commercial and investment banking and created the Federal DepositInsurance Corporation (FDIC) to safeguard bank deposits.2.Social Security System:–The Social Security Act, enacted during the New Deal,established the foundation for the American social securitysystem.–It aimed to provide economic security for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled through various financialassistance programs.3.Lessons Learned:–The Great Depression highlighted the importance ofgovernment intervention during economic crises.–It paved the way for a better understanding of monetary and fiscal policies’ role in stabilizing the economy.4.Economic Research and Analysis:–The Great Depression prompted economists to delve deeper into understanding the causes, effects, and potentialsolutions to economic downturns.–The field of macroeconomics emerged, leading to thedevelopment of new theories and models.ConclusionThe Great Depression remains a significant event in world history, leaving an indelible mark on economies, governments, and society as a whole. Its causes, devastating impact, and subsequent government response shaped economic policies for decades to come. Although lessons were learned, the scars of the Great Depression serve as a constant reminder of the fragility of the global economy and the need for prudent and proactive measures to prevent future crises.。
美国经济大萧条英文The Great Depression: A Dark Period in American Economic HistoryIntroduction:The Great Depression was one of the most devastating economic crises in American history. It occurred during the 1930s and had a profound impact on the lives of millions of Americans. This article will explore the causes, consequences, and the government's response to the Great Depression.Causes of the Great Depression:1. Stock Market Crash: The stock market crash of 1929 is often cited as the trigger for the Great Depression. On October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday, stock prices plummeted, leading to a collapse in confidence among investors. This event marked the beginning of the economic downturn.2. Overproduction and Underconsumption: The 1920s saw an era of excess, with rapid industrialization and mass production of goods. However, many ordinary Americans did not have the purchasing power to keep up with the pace, resulting in a surplus of goods and a decline in demand.3. Credit Expansion and Speculation: During the 1920s, there was a rapid expansion of credit, enabling people to borrow more money. This encouraged speculation, particularly in the stock market and real estate. When the market crashed, many people were left with substantial debts and no means to repay them.Consequences of the Great Depression:1. Massive Unemployment: As businesses went bankrupt and factories shut down, millions of Americans lost their jobs. Unemployment rates skyrocketed, reaching nearly 25% at the height of the depression. Many families faced severe poverty and struggled to provide for their basic needs.2. Bank Failures: The economic downturn took a toll on the banking sector as well. Lack of confidence led to a wave of bank runs, where panicked customers withdrew their deposits. Consequently, many banks failed, wiping out the savings of countless individuals and exacerbating the economic crisis.3. Dust Bowl: The Great Depression coincided with a severe drought in the Midwest known as the Dust Bowl. Widespread soil erosion and dust storms destroyed crops and caused mass migration from rural farming areas to cities, adding to the already high levels of unemployment and poverty.Government Response:1. New Deal: In response to the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, a series of economic stimulus programs. It aimed to create jobs, provide relief to the poor, and reform the financial system. Programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Social Security Administration (SSA) were established under the New Deal.2. Bank and Financial Reforms: The government implemented measures to stabilize the financial sector and restore public confidence. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured bank deposits and prevented future bank runs.3. Regulation and Expansion of Government Power: The Great Depression prompted a significant expansion of government intervention in the economy. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established to regulate the stock market, and the Federal Reserve was given greater authority to manage monetary policy to prevent future economic crises.Conclusion:The Great Depression was a period of immense hardship and suffering for the American people. It resulted from a combination of factors, including the stock market crash, overproduction, and excessive credit expansion. The consequences of the Great Depression were far-reaching, leading to high unemployment rates, bank failures, and mass poverty. However, it also sparked significant government intervention and the implementation of programs that aimed to alleviate economic distress. The lessons learned from this dark period in American economic history continue to shape economic policies today.。
Great Depression of CanadaThis homepage will inform you of the effects that the Great Depression had on the country of Canada and its people. It covers many areas of the Depression and the whole duration of time that it lasted.Throughout the years of 1929 to 1939, there was a world wide Depression and Canada was one of the worst affected countries. Financially and economically the country began to collapse regardless of what was done by political power.The Causes Of The DepressionEffectsHow Provinces Were EffectedHow Industry and Individuals Were AffectedLetters to BennettHow The Population Was EffectedGroups and ExpansionsBank Of Canada and Canadian Radio Broadcasting CorporationRelief CampsTrekkersPolitical RoleRichard Bennett and Mackenzie KingTHE CAUSE OF THE DEPRESSIONMany Canadians of the thirties felt that the depression wasn't brought about by the Wall Street Stock Market Crash, but by the enormous 1928 wheat crop crash. Due to this, many people were out of work and money and food began to run low. It was said by the Federal Department of Labor that a family needed between $1200 and $1500 a year to maintain the "minimum standard of decency." At that time, 60% of men and 82% of women made less than $1000 a year. The gross national product fell from $6.1 billion in 1929 to $3.5 billion in 1933 and the value of industrial production halved.1Unfortunately for the well being of Canada's economy prices continued to plummet and they even fell faster then wages until 1933, at that time, there was another wage cut, this time of 15%. For all the unemployed there was a relief program for families and all unemployed single men were sent packing by relief officers by boxcar to British Columbia. There were also work camps established for single men by Bennett's Government.The Great Depression, also known as The Dirty Thirties, wasn't like an ordinary depression where savings vanished(突然消失)and city families went to the farm until it blew over. This depression effected everyone in some way and there was basically no way to escape it. J.S. Woodsworth told Parliament "If they went out today, they would meet another army of unemployed coming back from the country to the city."2 As the depression carried on 1 in 5 Canadians became dependent on government relief. 30% of the Labour Force was unemployed, where as the unemployment rate had previously never dropped below 12%.EFFECTSHow The Provinces Were EffectedIt was estimated back in the thirties that 33% of Canada's Gross National Income came from exports; so the country was also greatly affected by the collapse of world trade. The four western prairie provinces were almost completely dependent on the export of wheat. The little money that they brought in for their wheat did not cover production costs, let alone farm taxes, depreciation(折旧贬值)and interest on the debts that farmers were building up. The net farm income fell from $417 million in 1929 to $109 million in 1933.Between 1933 and 1937 to make matters even worse, Saskatchewan suffered a drought. The money brought in for the wheat was at a record low and the provincial income dropped by 90% in two years, forcing 66% of the province into relief. Where the previous yield per acre was 27 bushels, it had dropped to as little as three in 1937. The price of grain also dropped from $1.60 a bushel to $0.28 a bushel in 1932. Although Ontario and Quebec were experiencing serious unemployment, as mining and forest incomes from exports had dropped though they were less effected due to more diversified industrial economics, which, luckily for them, protected they domestic market.For BC, the fish, lumber and fruit markets were considerably lower but they weren't as hard hit as the majority of the provinces. As for the Maritimes, they had entered provincial economic decline in the 1920's so therefore they had less of a margin to fall by. There was also a larger variety of jobs so the whole income wasn't wiped out due to the fall of one market. In 1934 Newfoundland had to surender its government responsibilities and had to ask for financial aid from Britain.How The Individual and Industry Was EffectedFor an unemployed individual person during the depression there were no jobs and for those that had a job there was a high chance that it could be lost. Further there was little income from the majority of jobs. Tens of thousands of people were dependent on government relief, charity and food handouts for daily survival. Parents found it difficult to keep young children in school because they were needed on the farms tobring in as much goods as possible. University students were also dropping out all over the country because tuition was too much to pay. The home workers of the houses had to find part time jobs to "make ends meet."The same ill-fortune was felt by industry business. The values of stocks were dropping rapidly and as the demand for goods and services dropped business firms ceased to exist. Even the CPR, considered on the world's most reliable income earners, didn't make enough money in 1932.LETTERS TO BENNETTDear Sir:I am writing you as a last resource to see if I cannot, through your aid, obtain a position and at last, after a period of more than two years, support myself. The fact is this day I am faced with starvation and I see no possibility for counteracting it or even averting it temporarily.I have applied for every position that I heard about but there were always so many girls who applied that it was impossible to get work... First I ate three very light meals a day; then two and then one. During the past two weeks I have eaten only toast and a drunk a cup of tea every other day.Day after day I pass a delicatessen and the food in the window look oh, so good! So tempting and I'm so hungry!...The stamp which carries this letter to you will represent the last three cents I have in the world, yet before I will stoop to dishonour my family, my character or my God, I will drown myself in.Hamilton, OntarioDear Mr.Bennett:I suppose I am silly to write this letter but I haven't anyone else to write to...we are just one of many on relief and trying to keep our place without being starved out...trying to get a start without and money and 5 children, all small... I am sure we can make a go of this place...if we could just manage until next fall. Just had 70 Acres in last year and the dry spell just caught it right along with the grasshoppers.Please help me by standing me some money and will send you my engagement ring and wedding ring as security...My two rings cost over $100 over 15 years ago but what good are they when the flour is nearly all done and there isn't much to eat in the house...Burton, AlbertaDear Sir:I wish to give my opinion of relief. First it is a shame for a strong man to ask for relief in this country... The best thing that can happen to a young man is to toss him overboard and compel him to sink or swim, in all my acquaintance I have never known one to drown who was worth saving...It takes hardship to make real men and women so cut out of relief...There are some people in this country who are in hard circumstances, but I can safely say there is no one having hardship that we pioneers had 28 or 30 years ago.Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan The previous letters are taken from Towards Tomorrow; Canada in a Changing World; HistoryHow The Population Was EffectedThe population growth in the 30's had reached the lowest since 1880 due to the plummeting numbers of immigrants and births. The number of Immigrants into Canada dropped from 169 000 in 1929 to fewer than 12 000 in 1935 and for the rest of the thirties it did not rise about 17 000. Almost 30 000 immigrants were forced to go back to their home country due to illness and unemployment. The number of deportations also rose from fewer then 2000 in 1929 to more than 7600 within three years. The death rate also rose due to poor living conditions, starvation, and disease. The birth rate dropped from 13.1 live births per 100 in 1930 to 9.7 in 1937.GROUPS AND EXPANSIONS INTRODUCED TOCANADAThe depression of the thirties resulted in the expansion of government responsibilities for the economy and welfare of the country and its people. Born in 1932 the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was created. In 1934, Bennett's government made the Bank of Canada to regulate the Monetary Policy. The Canadian Wheat Board was created in 1935 to market and establish the minimum price for wheat.The depression also sparked a variety of reform movements including, Social Credit, "Work and Wages" Program, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, Union National and W.D. Herridge. There was also the relief program that was set up for families in need and the monthly rate for a family of five varied from $60 in Calgary to $17 in Halifax.The depression also lead to the outlaw and eventually the banning of the Communist Party of Canada. The Party was outlawed from 1931 to 1936 when a group of nine leaders were arrested for being members of an "unlawful association". They were again banned when war was declared in 1939 although groups of workers', the Unity League, the Relief Camp Workers Union, and the National Unemployed Workers Association made an organization and protested.Bank Of Canada and Canadian Radio Broadcasting CommissionTo enlarge the government the political groups created two important businesses that are still around today. They are the Bank of Canada in 1934 which was later nationalized in 1937, and the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission in 1932 later changed to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also in 1937.The CRBC was crated to establish a publicly owned radio network broadcasting in both French and English. People felt that the need for radio was important because it became the only escape from the hopelessness than many people felt. The depression demonstrated its inability to effectively regulate the nations money system and a new national bank was created to perform this function. The duties were to regulate currency and credit, serve as a private banker's bank and to advise on government financial matters.Relief CampsBecause a family's relief was cut when a child turned 16, young men left home to reduce the burden on their families. Thousands of unemployed rode freight trains to the west looking for work which didn't exist. The Conservative government of Bennett set up work camps to prevent the growing unrest among this wandering massof young unemployed workers. The camps were located in remote areas such as northern Ontario and B.C.'s interior. Inmates called these camps "slave camps". They lived on war surplus clothing, bunked in tar-paper shacks, ate army rations and were forced to work six and a half days a week for twenty cents a day.Through 1932, the Relief Camp Workers Union (RCWU)was formed under the direction of Arthur Evans, a skilled carpenter, miner and communist labour organizer. The RCWU grew into a strong, disciplined democratic organization, focusing on the hopes and energy of the unemployed. In the spring of 1935, RCWU went on strike. They filled the streets of Vancouver shouting "Work & wages" and "When Do We Eat?". They demanded real work wages, better food, clothing and shelter, and an end to military discipline. Despite the overwhelming public support of "our boys", the federal government refused to negotiation with strikers. After this, the strikers voted to take their grievances to Parliament Hill in Ottawa.TrekkersOn June 3rd, 1935, the first group of trekkers climbed into boxcars leaving Vancouver. They were joined by men in Kamloops, Field, Golden, Calgary and Moose Jaw. Women's groups, service clubs, labour councils, churches, unions and caring citizens met the trekkers at each stop with offers of food and shelter. Over 2000 unemployed men massed in Regina by mid-June. In Winnipeg, Thunder bay and Toronto, thousands were just waiting to join. Bennett decided that it was time to put an end to this. He ordered CPR to ban trekkers as "trespassers". Federal Cabinet directed RCMP to bolster troops in Regina to disperse the trekkers. Meanwhile, trekkers met with the government ministers in Regina. It was proposed that a small delegation continue to Ottawa. Eight were voted to go including Arthur Evans. On June 22nd, the delegationmet with Bennett. Evans presented the strikers' demands. Bennett accused the purpose of the strikers to be a revolution to destroy law and order. The meeting disintegrated into heated exchanges with Bennett calling Evans a thief and Evans calling Bennett a liar. Negotiations ended.HOW POLITICS PLAYED A ROLEWith so much economic pressure and upset the country turned to politics to hopefully clean up the situation that they were facing every day. The country removed their past political party run by Mackenzie King and brought in the conservative Lawyer, Richard Bennett, hoping that he could make a difference.Richard Bennett and Mackenzie King in PowerRichard Bennett was brought into power when his opposition, Mackenzie King, reported that he would not give "a five-cent piece" to "any Tory Government". This remark was exactly what Bennett and his party needed to come into power and that is what happened in 1930. In the election, the conservatives got 137 seats in parliament and the Liberal representation was 88 seats. It was Bennett's confidence and energy that inspired Canadians to vote for Bennett.Richard BennettBennett was an "abrupt, headstrong, millionaire lawyer from Calgary"3 who dramatized King's slip as an example of tired cynicism and he accused the liberals of being unwilling and incapable of dealing with the pressures of the Depression. To get the people on his side, Bennett promised work, to promote the strengthening ofCanada's industry behind tariff walls, and to "blast (Canada's) way into the markets of the world."Bennett's first plan was to raise tariffs and in theory this would protect manufactures. He also believed this action would convince other nations to lower tariffs on Canadian goods. Unfortunately the side effects of his plan produced more damage then good. It did nothing to increase exports and in some cases increased export's costs, thereby reducing business. While the high tariffs might protect the domestic market the market was no sufficiently large enough to consume enough manufactured goods and therefore gave no longer significant life to the dyeing economy of Canada. In 1933 he was called the Nadir of Depression and became the but of endless jokes. Cars that were having to be towed by horses because gasoline could not be afforded were called "Bennett Buggies".Bennett's other plan to hopefully get the economy on an up rise again was to start the New Policy in 1935 which was taken off the idea of the American New Deal. It was to insure unemployment insurance, a reduced workweek, and minimum wage, industrial codes and a permanent economic planning.This policy didn't work and could not save the Conservatives or Bennett's place in politics. Many of the voters turned to three small parties: the Reconstruction party, which was a Conservative offshoot; the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, which was a socialist group; and the Social Credit Party, which was a right-winged radical movement in Alberta. Almost by default King and the Liberals won the election of 1935 and were in power again. Bennett continued ineffectively as an opposition leader until 1938 when he abandoned Canada to England.Mackenzie KingKing dropped the new deal and declared it unconstitutional in 1937 and instead made the new Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. He converted the radio commission to The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and fully nationalized the Bank of Canada. Finally he fended off provincial demands for more money to support relief programs for the unemployed.Vancouver1900 to 1940[edit] EconomyCordova Street, looking east from Cambie Street (189?).With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, Vancouver’s seaport was able to compete with the major international ports for global trade because it was positioned as an alternative route to Europe. During the 1920s, the provincial government successfully fought to have freight rates that discriminated against goods transported by rail through the mountains eliminated, giving the young lawyer of the case, Gerry McGeer, a reputation as “the man who flattened the Rockies.”[10] Consequently, prairie wheat came west through Vancouver rather than being shipped out through eastern ports. The federal government established the Vancouver Harbour Commission in 1913 to oversee port development. With its completion in 1923, Ballantyne Pier was the most technologically advanced port in the British Empire.[11] The CPR, lumber exporters, terminal operators, and other companies based on the waterfront banded together after World War I to establish the Shipping Federation of British Columbia as an employers’ association to manage industrial relations on the increasingly busy waterfront.[12] The Federation fought vociferously against unionization, defeating a series of strikes and breaking unions until the determined longshoremen established the current ILWU local after the Second World War.[13] By the 1930s, commercial traffic through the port had become the largest sector in Vancouver’s economy.[14][edit] Social ControversiesAlthough the provincial resource-based economy allowed Vancouver to flourish, it was nonetheless not immune to the vagaries of organized labour. Two general strikes were launched by labour groups during the years following the First World War, including Canada’s first general strike following the death of a trade unionist, Ginger Goodwin. Major recessions and depressions hit the city hard in the late 1890s, 1919, 1923, and 1929, which, aside from creating hardship also may have likely fuelled social tensions. In particular, members of the new and growing Asian population were subjected to discrimination as well as periodic upsurges of more physical objections to their arrival.The most overt expression of this may have been the 1907 riots thought to have been organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League, a group formed under organized labour and inspired by its counterpart in San Francisco.[15]But discrimination was perhaps less overt than such events suggest. It could be argued that some politicians and publicists may have promoted and disseminated controversial ideologies through popular books such as H. Glynn-Ward’s 1921 The Writing on the Wall and Tom MacInnes’s 1929 The Oriental Occupation of British Columbia. Newspapermen such as L. D. Taylor of the Vancouver World and General Victor Odlum of the Star generated a glut of editorials analyzing and warning about the “Oriental Menace,” as did Danger: The Anti-Asiatic Weekly.[16]This determination of British Columbians to secure B.C.'s borders [17] influenced federal politicians to pass immigration laws such as the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. What may be called a "climate of fear and hysteria" in the 1920s, culminated in the 'Janet Smith case', in which a Chinese national was accused of killing his young, white, femaleco-worker. The evidence for his guilt was perhaps based more on stereotyping than facts.[18]A growing population of Indians, primarily of the Sikh religion, were also required to abide by immigration laws starting in 1908, despite the fact that they were subjects of the British Empire. This culminated in the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which most of 376 immigrants on the Komagata Maru, most of them from the Punjab in India were not permitted to disembark because they had not complied with immigration laws that required that they come by a continuous passage from their home country.A group of residents of Indian origin rallied in support of the passengers. After losing a court challenge of the immigration laws, the ship remained in Burrard Inlet while negotiations continued concerning its departure. When negotiations dragged on, the head immigration officer in Vancouver arranged an attempt by the Vancouver police and other officials to boardthe ship, who were repelled by what the Vancouver Sun reported as “howling masses of Hindus”. Subseque ntly the federal government sent a naval ship and after concessions made by the federal Minister of Agriculture, an MP from Penticton, the ship departed. After returning to India, twenty of the passengers were shot by police in an incident after they refused to return to the Punjab.[19][edit] Vice and PoliticsVancouver’s longest serving and most often elected mayor, L. D. Taylor, followed an “open town” policy prior to his final defeat in 1934 to Gerry McGeer. Essentially, the policy was that vice crimes such as prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging would be managed, rather than eliminated, so that police resources could be directed towards major crime. [20] A consequence of this, in addition to assumptions that Taylor was colluding with the criminal underworld, was the maintenance of red light districts in racialized neighbourhoods, such as Chinatown, Japantown, and Hogan's Alley, which perpetuated the association of non-whites with immorality and vice crime.[21] Taylor suffered the biggest electoral defeat the city had seen in 1934, largely on this issue.[22] McGeer ran on a law and order platform, resulting in a crackdown on vice crimes, which, after years of Taylor’s “open town,” sought to clean up crime. Unfortunately, policing non-white communities was key to successfully executing the plan.[23]Even the East End (today’s Strathcona) had by WWI been largely vacated by English, Scottish, and Irish residents who moved to the wealthier (and whiter) new developments of the West End and Shaughnessy. The East End, the original residential district that grew up around Hasting’s Mill, was left to successive waves of new immigrants, and became associated with poverty and vice, (as the Downtown Eastside remains today).[24][edit] Property/Neighbourhood DevelopmentThe first act of City Council at its first meeting in 1886 was to request that the 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) military reserve be handed over for use as a park. Historians have pointed out that this may seem a strange priority for the nascent city as there was an abundance of green space at the time. The West End, however, was designated to be an upscale neighbourhood by speculators with connections to the CPR.[25], They did not want the scattered settlements on this property to grow into another industrial, working class neighbourhood.[26] This act also signaled the beginning of the process that would see the remaining inhabitants of various origins evicted as squatters in the 1920s for the creation of a seemingly pristinepark.[27]It has been suggested that perhaps the new Stanley Park would over time be purged of any trace of native occupation. However over time the Parks Board has begun to refill it with Native artifacts.[28]By the interwar years, other neighbourhoods had grown that were working class, but not especially impoverished or racially exclusive, such as Mount Pleasant, the suburb of South Vancouver, and Grandview-Woodland.[29] Even the West End was becoming less exclusive. CPR developers once again established a new enclave for the city’s white and wealthy elite that would pull them from the West End and be the destination for the “coming smart set.” Point Grey was incorporated in 1908 for this purpose, and Shaughnessy Heights would be developed exclusively for the “richest and most prominent citizens,” who were required to spend a minimum of $6, 000 on the construction of new homes, which were to conform to specific style requirements.[30] These patterns of economic segregation were apparently secured by 1929 when Point Grey and South Vancouver were amalgamated with Vancouver. Point Grey included the current neighbourhoods of Arbutus Ridge, Dunbar-Southlands, Kerrisdale and Marpole, Oakridge, Shaughnessy and South Cambie, and South Vancouver included the current neighbourhoods of Cedar Cottage, Collingwood, Killarney, Riley Park-Little Mountain, Sunset, and Victoria-Fraserview. William Harold Malkin was the first mayor of the new city, having defeated incumbent Louis Denison Taylor, the champion of amalgamation, in the 1928 civic election.[edit] The DepressionBC was perhaps the hardest Canadian province hit by the depression. Although Vancouver managed to stave off bankruptcy, other cities in the Lower Mainland were not so lucky, such as North Vancouver and Burnaby. Vancouver also happened to be the target destination for thousands of transients –unemployed young men –who traveled across Canada looking for work, often by hopping on boxcars. This was the end of the line and had for years been a “Mecca of the Unemployed” because, as some cynically joked, it was the only city in Canada where you could starve to death before freezing to death.[31]“Hobo jungles” sprouted up in the earliest days of the depression, where men built make-shift shanty towns out of whatever they could find (or steal).[32]The largest of these was shut down allegedly for being unsanitary. Vancouver was also the launching pad for the Communist-led unemployed protests that frequented the city throughout the decade, culminating in the relief camp strike and the On-to-Ottawa Trek in 1935. Communist agitators and their supporters also led strikes in other industries, most notably the 1935 waterfront strike, and organized a large proportion of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion from Vancouver tofight fascism in the Spanish Civil War as Canada’s (unofficial) contribution to the International Brigades.[edit] Civic CelebrationsVancouver was the site of major celebrations in 1936, in part to bolster civic spirit in the midst of the depression, as well as to celebrate Vancouver’s Jubilee. Mayor McGeer provoked considerable controversy by organizing expensive celebrations at a time when the city was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and civic employees were working at a significantly reduced pay rate. Nevertheless, he did find a great deal of support from those that agreed a celebration would ultimately be good for the city’s prosperity. While some large expend itures were roundly criticized –for example, the “ugly” fountain erected in Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon[28]– others drew significant financial and public support, such as the construction of a new (and the current) city hall on Cambie Street. The next major civic celebration was the 1939 visit of the King to mark the end of the depression and the onset of another world war.[。
第21章衰退与萧条一、概念题1.大萧条(Great Depression)答:大萧条指1929年至1939年之间发生的全球性经济大衰退,是以商业和经济运营普遍衰退为特征的一种经济状况。
1929~1933年的萧条——“世界经济衰退”比任何一次经济衰退的影响都要深远得多。
这次经济萧条是以农产品价格下跌为起点的,农业衰退由于金融的大崩溃而进一步恶化,尤其在美国,一股投机热导致大量资金从欧洲抽回,随后在1929年10月发生了令人恐慌的华尔街股市暴跌。
在全球范围内,经济衰退造成大规模的持续失业;资本的短缺在所有的工业化国家中都带来了出口和国内消费的锐减;这场灾难还使中欧和东欧许多国家的制度遭到破产。
根据凯恩斯的理论,大萧条是因为有效需求不足而产生的,所以政府的任务是扩大有效需求。
2.大衰退(Great Recession)答:大衰退指的是一场在2007年8月9日开始浮现的金融危机引发的经济衰退,始于美国房地产市场,不断深化并传播到全球,从金融市场传递到商品和服务市场。
大量的低成本抵押贷款,特别是给那些收入太低而不足以支付所购买房屋者的贷款,导致了房价的疯狂上涨。
只要房屋价格继续上涨,房屋所有人就能通过再融资偿还最初的抵押贷款。
当然,一旦房价停止上涨,房屋所有人将只剩下他们难以偿付的贷款,而且不能再融资。
大部分银行通过抵押贷款证券化在金融市场卖掉了抵押贷款。
而当存在真实风险时这些证券被作为无风险证券交易,加上金融衍生品的繁荣发展并被那些对赌注风险毫不知情的投资者不断交易,导致了次级房屋信贷危机的爆发,投资者开始对按揭证券的价值失去信心,引发了大衰退。
3.新政(New Deal)答:新政又称“罗斯福新政”,指面对1929~1933年的世界经济大危机,1933年罗斯福接任美国总统后为挽救经济所采取的一系列社会、经济政策的总称。
新政主要包括通过国会制定了《紧急银行法令》《国家产业复兴法》《农业调整法》等法案,其主旨是强化政府干预,通过采取一系列发展国家垄断资本主义的措施来克服严重的信贷危机及经济衰退。
关于经济衰退的书1.《大萧条》(TheGreatDepression)作者:约翰·凯纳斯(JohnKennethGalbraith)这本经典之作详细描述了1929年至1939年期间的大萧条,探讨了导致经济衰退的诸多因素,并提供了对冲经济不景气的政策建议。
2.《经济学原理》(PrinciplesofEconomics)作者:尼格尔·马塞尔(N.GregoryMankiw)这是一本广泛使用的经济学入门教材,其中一些章节涉及了经济周期和衰退的原因和影响。
它以生动的语言解释了复杂的经济理论,适合初学者阅读。
3.《愤怒的葡萄》(TheGrapesofWrath)作者:约翰·斯坦贝克(JohnSteinbeck)这是一部小说,以大萧条时期美国农民的困境为背景,描绘了恶劣经济环境下人们的生活。
这本书通过一个家庭的故事,展示了经济衰退对普通人的心理和物质生活的影响。
4.《黑天鹅》(TheBlackSwan)作者:纳西姆·尼古拉斯·塔勒布(NassimNicholasTaleb)尽管这本书主要讨论了统计学和不确定性的问题,但它也对经济衰退和金融崩溃进行了深入的探讨。
作者认为,经济衰退是黑天鹅事件的结果,这些意外事件在经济学中很难预测和解释。
5.《资本主义的生命周期》(TheLifeCycleofCapitalism)作者:约瑟夫·A·熊彼特(JosephA.Schumpeter)这本书提出了“创新破坏”理论,认为经济衰退是资本主义发展过程中不可避免的一部分。
作者描述了经济衰退如何通过技术进步和市场变革为经济创造新的增长机会。
6.《我们如何遭受经济危机》(HowWeGotintoThisMess)作者:乔治·A·阿克洛夫(GeorgeA.Akerlof)和罗伯特·J·希勒(RobertJ.Shiller)这本书探讨了金融危机和经济衰退的根源,并提供了对应对经济危机的建议。
Great Depression, in U.S. history, the severe economic crisis supposedly precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted on society. Economists have disagreed over its causes, but certain causative factors are generally accepted. The prosperity of the 1920s was unevenly distributed among the various parts of the American economy—farmers and unskilled workers were notably excluded—with the result that the nation's productive capacity was greater than its capacity to consume. In addition, the tariff and war-debt policies of the Republican administrations of the 1920s had cut down the foreign market for American goods. Finally, easy-money policies led to an inordinate expansion of credit and installment buying and fantastic speculation in the stock mark et. The American depression produced severe effects abroad, especially in Europe, where many countries had not fully recovered from the aftermath of World War I; in Germany, the economic disaster and resulting social dislocation contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler. In the United States, at the depth (1932–33) of the depression, there were 16 million unemployed—about one third of the available labor force. The gross national product declined from the 1929 figure of $103,828,000,000 to $55,760,000,000 in 1933. The economic, agricultural, and relief policies of the New Deal administration under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did a great deal to mitigate the effects of the depression and, most importantly, to restore a sense of confidence to the American people. Yet it is generally agreed that complete business recovery was not achieved and unemployment ended until the government began to spend heavily for defense in the early 1940s.大萧条时期,美国的历史,据说严重的经济危机促成了美国股市1929年崩溃。
经济大萧条英语The Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that lasted from 1929 to 1939. It originated in the United States and quickly spread to other countries. The depression was caused by several factors, including the stock market crash of 1929, overproduction of goods, and a decrease in consumer spending.The stock market crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, was a major factor that contributed to the Great Depression. It took place on October 29, 1929, when stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange plummeted, causing investors to lose their life savings. This event led to a decrease in consumer spending, as people were no longer able to afford to buy goods.Overproduction of goods was another factor that contributed to the Great Depression. During the 1920s, American industries produced more goods than they were able to sell, which led to a decrease in prices and profits. This caused businesses to lay off workers, leading to a decrease in consumer spending and worsening the economic crisis.The Great Depression had a profound impact on the world economy, causing widespread unemployment, poverty, and suffering. Governments around the world implemented various policies to try to mitigate the effects of the depression, such as public works programs and social welfare programs.The depression came to an end in the late 1930s, partly as a result of government intervention and partly due to the onset of World War II, which created demand for goods and led to an increase in employment. The Great Depression remains one of the most significant economic events in modern history and has had a lasting impact on the global economy.。
1) General introduction about the Great Depression. (Definition/Background Introduction)2) The cause and the development of the Great Depression. How do all the nations deal with the Great Depression.3) The political, economic, and the social influence of the Great Depression on the world nations.The Great DepressionThe Great Depression was an economic slump in North America,Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939.It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.Though the . economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929.(During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929 )Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors,(个人投资者) this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency(破产); (by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed) The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thusaggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; (by 1932, . manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.)The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing to the special and intimate relationships that had been forged between the United States and European economies after World War I.The United States had emerged from the war as the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, whose national economies had been greatly weakened by the war itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other defeated nations, by the need to pay war reparations.So once the American economy slumped and the flow of American investment credits to Europe dried up, prosperity tended to collapse there as well. The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United States, ., Germany and Great Britain.In Germany, unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of the work force. Britain was less severely affected, but its industrial and export sectors remained seriously depressed until World War II. Many other countries had been affected by the slump by 1931.Almost all nations sought to protect their domestic production by imposingtariffs, raising existing ones, and setting quotas on foreign imports. The effect of these restrictive measures was to greatly reduce the volume of international trade( by 1932 the total value of world trade had fallen by more than half as country after country took measures against the importation of foreign goods.)The Great Depression had important consequences in the political sphere.In the United States, economic distress led to the election of the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932. Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works projects to promote a recovery.But despite this active intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat reduced scale, with about 15 percent of the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as American factories were flooded with orders from overseas for armaments and munitions. The depression ended completely soon after the United States' entry into World War II in 1941.In Europe,the Great Depression strengthened extremist forces and lowered the prestige of liberal democracy.In Germany, economic distres s directly contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The Nazis' public-works projects and their rapid expansion of munitions production ended the Depression there by 1936.At least in part, the Great Depression was caused by underlying weaknesses and imbalances within the . economy that had been obscured by the boompsychology and speculative euphoria of the 1920s. The Depression exposed those weaknesses, as it did the inability of the nation's political and financial institutions to cope with the vicious downward economic cycle that had set in by 1930. Prior to the Great Depression, governments traditionally took little or no action in times of business downturn, relying instead on impersonal market forces to achieve the necessary economic correction. But market forces alone proved unable to achieve the desired recovery in the early years of the Great Depression, and this painful discovery eventually inspired some fundamental changes in the United States' economic structure. After the Great Depression, government action, whether in the form of taxation, industrial regulation, public works, social insurance, social-welfare services, or deficit spending, came to assume a principal role in ensuring economic stability in most industrial nations with market economies.The International DepressionThe Great Depression of 1929-33 was the most severe economic crisis of modern times. Millions of people lost their jobs, and many farmers and businesses were bankrupted. Industrialized nations and those supplying primary products (food and raw materials) were all affected in one way or another. In Germany the United States industrial output fell by about 50 per cent, and between 25 and 33 per cent of the industrial labour force was unemployed.The Depression was eventually to cause a complete turn-around in economic theory and government policy. In the 1920s governments and business people largely believed, as they had since the 19th century, that prosperity resulted from the least possible government intervention in the domestic economy, from open international relations with little trade discrimination, and from currencies that were fixed in value and readily convertible. Few people would continue to believe this in the 1930s.THE MAIN AREAS OF DEPRESSIONThe US economy had experienced rapid economic growth and financial excess in the late 1920s, and initially the economic downturn was seen as simply part of the boom-bust-boom cycle. Unexpectedly, however, output continued to fall for three and a half years, by which time half of the population was in desperate circumstances (map1). It also became clear that there had been serious over-production in agriculture, leading to falling prices and a rising debt among farmers. At the same time there was a major banking crisis, including the "Wall Street Crash" in October 1929. The situation was aggravated by serious policy mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, which led to a fall in money supply and further contraction of the economy.The economic situation in Germany (map2) was made worse by the enormous debt with which the country had been burdened following the First World War. It had been forced to borrow heavily in order to pay "reparations" to the victorious European powers, as demanded by the Treat of Versailles (1919), and also to pay for industrial reconstruction. When the Americaneconomy fell into depression, US banks recalled their loans, causing the German banking system to collapse.Countries that were dependent on the export of primary products, such as those in Latin America, were already suffering a depression in the late l920s. More efficient farming methods and technological changes meant that the supply of agricultural products was rising faster than demand, and prices were falling as a consequence. Initially, the governments of the producer countries stockpiled their products. but this depended on loans from the USA and Europe. When these were recalled, the stockpiles were released onto the market, causing prices to collapse and the income of the primary-producing countries to fall drastically (map3).NEW INTERVENTIONIST POLICIESThe Depression spread rapidly around the world because the responses made by governments were flawed. When faced with falling export earnings they overreacted and severely increased tariffs on imports, thus further reducing trade. Moreover, since deflation was the only policy supported by economic theory at the time, the initial response of every government was to cut their spending. As a result consumer demand fell even further. Deflationary policies were critically linked to exchange rates. Under the Gold Standard, which linked currencies to the value of gold, governments were committed to maintaining fixed exchange rates. However, during the Depression they were forced to keep interest rates high to persuade banks to buy and hold their currency. Since prices were falling, interest-rate repayments rose in real terms, making it too expensive for both businesses and individuals to borrow.The First World War had led to such political mistrust that international action to halt the Depression was impossible to achieve In 1931 banks in the United States started to withdraw funds from Europe, leading to the selling of European currencies and the collapse of many European banks. At this point governments either introduced exchange control (as in Germany) or devalued the currency (as in Britain) to stop further runs. As a consequence of this action the gold standard collapsed (map 4).POLITICAL IMPLICATIONSThe Depression had profound political implications. In countries such as Germany and Japan, reaction to the Depression brought about the rise to power of militarist governments who adopted the regressive foreign policies that led to the Second World War. In countries such as the United States and Britain, government intervention ultimately resulted in the creation of welfare systems and the managed economies of the period following the Second World War.In the United States Roosevelt became President in 1933 and promised a "New Deal" under which the government would intervene to reduce unemployment by work-creation schemes such as street cleaning and the painting of post offices. Both agriculture and industry were supported by policies (which turned out to be mistaken) to restrict output and increase prices. The most durable legacy of the New Deal was the great public works projects such as the Hoover Dam and the introduction by the Tennessee Valley Authority of flood control, electric power, fertilizer,and even education to a depressed agricultural region in the south.The New Deal was not, in the main, an early example of economic management, and it did not lead to rapid recovery. Income per capita was no higher in 1939 than in 1929, although the government welfare and public works policies did benefit many of the most needy people. The big growth in the US economy was, in fact, due to rearmament.In Germany Hitler adopted policies that were more interventionist, developing a massive work-creation scheme that had largely eradicated unemployment by 1936. In the same year rearmament, paid for by government borrowing, started in earnest. In order to keep down inflation, consumption was restricted by rationing and trade controls. By 1939 the Germans Gross National Product was 51 per cent higher than in 1929 an increase due mainly to the manufacture of armaments and machinery.THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD TRADEThe German case is an extreme example of what happened virtually everywhere in the 1930s. The international economy broke up into trading blocs determined by political allegiances and the currency in which they traded. Trade between the blocs was limited, with world trade in 1939 still below its 1929 level. Although the global economy did eventually recover from the Depression, it was at considerable cost to international economic relations and to political stability。
1) General introduction about the Great Depression. (Definition/Background Introduction)2) The cause and the development of the Great Depression. How do all the nations deal with the Great Depression.3) The political, economic, and the social influence of the Great Depression on the world nations.The Great DepressionThe Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929.(During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929)Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors,(个人投资者)this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios.Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency(破产); (by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed)The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; (by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.)The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing to the special and intimate relationships that had been forged between the United States and European economies after World War I.The United States had emerged from the war as the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, whose national economies had been greatly weakened by the war itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other defeated nations, by the need to pay war reparations.So once the American economy slumped and the flow of American investment credits to Europe dried up, prosperity tended to collapse there as well. The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the UnitedStates, i.e., Germany and Great Britain.In Germany, unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of the work force. Britain was less severely affected, but its industrial and export sectors remained seriously depressed until World War II. Many other countries had been affected by the slump by 1931. Almost all nations sought to protect their domestic production by imposing tariffs, raising existing ones,and setting quotas on foreign imports. The effect of these restrictive measures was to greatly reduce the volume of international trade(by 1932 the total value of world trade had fallen by more than half as country after country took measures against the importation of foreign goods.)The Great Depression had important consequences in the political sphere.In the United States, economic distress led to the election of the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932. Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works projects to promote a recovery. But despite this active intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat reduced scale, with about 15 percent of the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as American factories were flooded with orders from overseas for armaments and munitions. The depression ended completely soon after the United States' entry into World War II in 1941.In Europe,the Great Depression strengthened extremist forces and lowered the prestige of liberal democracy.In Germany, economic distres s directly contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The Nazis' public-works projects and their rapid expansion of munitions production ended the Depression there by 1936.At least in part, the Great Depression was caused by underlying weaknesses and imbalances within the U.S. economy that had been obscured by the boom psychology and speculative euphoria of the 1920s. The Depression exposed those weaknesses, as it did the inability of the nation's political and financial institutions to cope with the vicious downward economic cycle that had set in by 1930. Prior to the Great Depression, governments traditionally took little or no action in times of business downturn, relying instead on impersonal market forces to achieve the necessary economic correction. But market forces alone proved unable to achieve the desired recovery in the early years of the Great Depression, and this painful discovery eventually inspired some fundamental changes in the United States'economic structure. After the Great Depression, government action, whether in the form of taxation, industrial regulation, public works, social insurance, social-welfare services, or deficit spending, came to assume a principal role in ensuring economic stability in most industrial nations with market economies.The International DepressionThe Great Depression of 1929-33 was the most severe economic crisis of modern times. Millions of people lost their jobs, and many farmers and businesses were bankrupted. Industrialized nations and those supplying primary products (food and raw materials) were all affected in one way or another. In Germany the United States industrial output fell by about 50 per cent, and between 25 and 33 per cent of the industrial labour force was unemployed.The Depression was eventually to cause a complete turn-around in economic theory and government policy. In the 1920s governments and business people largely believed, as they had since the 19th century, that prosperity resulted from the least possible government intervention in the domestic economy, from open international relations with little trade discrimination, and from currencies that were fixed in value and readily convertible. Few people would continue to believe this in the 1930s.THE MAIN AREAS OF DEPRESSIONThe US economy had experienced rapid economic growth and financial excess in the late 1920s, and initially the economic downturn was seen as simply part of the boom-bust-boom cycle. Unexpectedly, however, output continued to fall for three and a half years, by which time half of the population was in desperate circumstances (map1). It also became clear that there had been serious over-production in agriculture, leading to falling prices and a rising debt among farmers. At the same time there was a major banking crisis, including the "Wall Street Crash" in October 1929. The situation was aggravated by serious policy mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, which led to a fall in money supply and further contraction of the economy.The economic situation in Germany (map2) was made worse by the enormous debt with which the country had been burdened following the First World War. It had been forced to borrow heavily in order to pay "reparations" to the victorious European powers, as demanded by the Treat of Versailles (1919), and also to pay forindustrial reconstruction. When the American economy fell into depression, US banks recalled their loans, causing the German banking system to collapse.Countries that were dependent on the export of primary products, such as those in Latin America, were already suffering a depression in the late l920s. More efficient farming methods and technological changes meant that the supply of agricultural products was rising faster than demand, and prices were falling as a consequence. Initially, the governments of the producer countries stockpiled their products. but this depended on loans from the USA and Europe. When these were recalled, the stockpiles were released onto the market, causing prices to collapse and the income of the primary-producing countries to fall drastically (map3).NEW INTERVENTIONIST POLICIESThe Depression spread rapidly around the world because the responses made by governments were flawed. When faced with falling export earnings they overreacted and severely increased tariffs on imports, thus further reducing trade. Moreover, since deflation was the only policy supported by economic theory at the time, the initial response of every government was to cut their spending. As a result consumer demand fell even further. Deflationary policies were critically linked to exchange rates. Under the Gold Standard, which linked currencies to the value of gold, governments were committed to maintaining fixed exchange rates. However, during the Depression they were forced to keep interest rates high to persuade banks to buy and hold their currency. Since prices were falling, interest-rate repayments rose in real terms, making it too expensive for both businesses and individuals to borrow. The First World War had led to such political mistrust that international action to halt the Depression was impossible to achieve In 1931 banks in the United States started to withdraw funds from Europe, leading to the selling of European currencies and the collapse of many European banks. At this point governments either introduced exchange control (as in Germany) or devalued the currency (as in Britain) to stop further runs. As a consequence of this action the gold standard collapsed (map 4). POLITICAL IMPLICATIONSThe Depression had profound political implications. In countries such as Germany and Japan, reaction to the Depression brought about the rise to power of militarist governments who adopted the regressive foreign policies that led to the Second World War. In countries such as the United States and Britain, government intervention ultimately resulted in the creation of welfare systems and the managed economies of the period following the Second World War.In the United States Roosevelt became President in 1933 and promised a "New Deal" under which the government would intervene to reduce unemployment by work-creation schemes such as street cleaning and the painting of post offices. Both agriculture and industry were supported by policies (which turned out to be mistaken) to restrict output and increase prices. The most durable legacy of the New Deal was the great public works projects such as the Hoover Dam and the introduction by the Tennessee Valley Authority of flood control, electric power, fertilizer, and even education to a depressed agricultural region in the south.The New Deal was not, in the main, an early example of economic management, and it did not lead to rapid recovery. Income per capita was no higher in 1939 than in 1929, although the government welfare and public works policies did benefit many of the most needy people. The big growth in the US economy was, in fact, due to rearmament.In Germany Hitler adopted policies that were more interventionist, developing a massive work-creation scheme that had largely eradicated unemployment by 1936. In the same year rearmament, paid for by government borrowing, started in earnest. In order to keep down inflation, consumption was restricted by rationing and trade controls. By 1939 the GermansGross National Product was 51 per cent higher than in 1929an increase due mainly to the manufacture of armaments and machinery.THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD TRADEThe German case is an extreme example of what happened virtually everywhere in the 1930s. The international economy broke up into trading blocs determined by political allegiances and the currency in which they traded. Trade between the blocs was limited, with world trade in 1939 still below its 1929 level. Although the global economy did eventually recover from the Depression, it was at considerable cost to international economic relations and to political stability。