ABSTRACT
The war effort with its ceaseless demand for output strained the regional economy and its labour force. But the peace that followed almost drove it to breaking-point through failure of demand and lack of work. Between the wars the unimaginable happened: the region which had enjoyed expanding production for a century found its great industries going into decline. Coal, iron, and ships never again equalled their 1913 output. Between 1913 and 1937 the region’s coal output contracted by 40 per cent. Pig-iron, the spur to growth for half a century, suffered a two-thirds reduction, and ships launched declined almost by half (Table 21). Alone of the staple industries, steel increased its output from 1·4 million to 1·8 million tons. But in steel the peak year was 1920 with over 2 million tons produced, and this was not surpassed during the next twenty years.
