“Business as Usual”

Destiny has strange couriers. Paradoxically, the party of peace and retrenchment had best prepared Britain for war. The Army reforms of Haldane and the financial reforms of Asquith and Lloyd George laid the foundations for Britain's efforts in the war. ¹ The Liberal ministers might speak of the expenditure on armaments as “sterile,” but in 1913, £74,500,000 were allotted for this purpose in a budget of £195,640,000. Income taxes, surtaxes, and death duties, plus heavy taxes on most of the comforts and “luxuries” of the working class—sugar, tea, beer, tobacco, and other items—enabled Britain to finance the war. ² It was thus fitting that the Liberals should be in office in August of 1914.