ABSTRACT
The stock exchanges of the world and their members, especially the London Stock Exchange, had not only been prime agents of this system, they had also been prime beneficiaries. As a result, the necessary post-war adjustment of government expenditure and borrowing was delayed until 1920 and a boom in consumer spending and stock exchange activity occurred. It was only with the London Stock Exchange crash of September 1929, the Wall Street crash of October 1929 and the 1931 politico-financial crises which led to the formation of the National Government that the impossibility of return to pre-war conditions came conclusively to be accepted, marked by dropping the gold standard. Companies which had enjoyed the fruits of excess military demand for their production during the war had to face the demoralising task of winning back markets which had been forsaken in the process.
