Module 1: The coming of the Depression

• The wall street crash in America


  Sparked the depression in Britain
• Britain was already financially unstable
• Causes of the depression in Britain


  • Long term causes
  • Short term cause
• Long term causes


  • Bigger foreign countries able to produce quicker and sell cheaper
  • Britain slow to follow along with new developments in other countries like mass production in America and to switch to new industries like chemicals and cars
  • Companies that exported abroad often had to pay Import duties
• Cost of coal production

  65p per tonne in America, £1.56 in Britain
• Short term cause


  The Wall Street Crash in 1929
• Wall Street Crash


  Caused confidence to fall and international trade to decline
• By 1939 British exports had halved and were importing more than they were exporting