Britain stayed on the gold standard thereafter, pursuing, as we saw previously, austere policies under the watchful eyes of the Treasury, which refused virtually all efforts and initiatives to reflate the economy. Unemployment rose from 10.4 percent in 1929 to 22.1 percent in early 1932 as a result of the combined effect of the Treasury's austerity policies and the contractionary effect of being on gold, which demanded, of course, ever-more austerity.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 514