ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the slow and convoluted process through which political support for government guarantees of full male employment widened during the inter-war years. It shows how the emergence of the broad political support was linked inextricably to the development of new proposals by J. M. Keynes and others for managing and stabilizing the economy, and achieving full employment of labour and capital. The powerful voice of the emergent trade union movement, combined with recurrent bouts of high unemployment after the 1870s, provided additional weight to existing demands for full employment to be placed high on the political agenda. The National Conservative governments of the 1930s also responded to growing public concern over unemployment by directing spending to the most depressed areas. Government policy retained its basic adherence to the prevailing economic orthodoxy, relying primarily on tariff barriers to protect the home market and the promotion of trade and employment through rationalization of export industries and encouragement of labour mobility.
