The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill.

London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press,, 1925. First edition, first impression, of Keynes's refutation of Winston Churchill's decision to return Britain to the gold standard. Churchill, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the return to the gold standard on the 28 April 1925. In the months leading to the decision, Keynes had personally advised Churchill against the return, arguing that the policy would overvalue sterling by 10 percent, and lead to higher unemployment, deflation, and reduced wages. Keynes developed his arguments in a series of articles, rejected by The Times but published in the Evening Standard, and gathered these articles for publication in the present volume. The book - printed at Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, and the most fragile of his well-known works - strongly criticises Churchill's policy. The title is a nod to his Economic Consequences of the Peace, his assault on the Treaty of Versailles, and both works have long been seen as prescient by Keynes's admirers. Most subsequent historical analysis has concurred with Keynes, that Churchill's policy led to the economic stagnation seen in the following years. The decision was ultimately reversed, and the pound was permanently delinked from gold in 1931. Keynes further developed the monetary arguments he made here into his 1930 Treatise of Money. Octavo. Original green wrappers, front wrapped lettered in black. Recased with wrappers restored along spine, toned at extremities; still a very good copy of this fragile item. Moggridge C4.1; Woolmer 66.