Pygmalion - Economy

The Great Unrest

From 1910-1914 Britain was racked by a series of strikes that were noted for
their militancy and for their refusal to follow the dictates of union leaders.

These strikes came in the wake of the end of the period of 'peaceful' capitalist
growth. The long economic expansion had already shown signs of coming to an
end in the so-called Great Depression of 1873-96. A short boom followed but by
the early part of the twentieth century wages remained stagnant whilst prices
increased. This meant that workers were increasingly seeing their standard of
living cut. The parallel with today is striking, and is perhaps one of the reasons
that Pygmalion is George Bernard Shaw's most popular piece of writing.

Britain had gone into a severe decline against the newer economies of Germany
and the US:

Table 1: Percentage Distribution of the World's Manufacturing Production 1870 and 1913
(% of world total)
1870
1913
USA
23.3
35.8
Germany
13.2
15.7
U.K
31.8
14.0
France
10.3
6.4
Russia
3.7
5.5

Much of British industry had failed to modernise and many factories were slow
to use electricity. For example by 1910 German steel production was double
that of Britain and US output of coal had overtaken and was greater than
Britain.

'Large sections of the industrial population were still at the end of the 19th
century living in appalling conditions' - James Joll.

Liza's Character

At the time that this play was written, the idea of

female professionals was somewhat new. Aside
from the profession of prostitution, women were
generally housewives before this period, and there
is some residual resistance to the idea of normally
male professions being entered by females in the
play.

Pickering is initially horrified by the idea of Eliza

opening a flower shop, since being involved in a
trade was a mark of belonging to the lower class.
Pickering is shaken similarly after his experience of
watching Eliza fool everyone at a garden and
dinner party, saying that she played her part
almost too well. The idea of a professional female
socialite is threatening to him in a way that wouldn't exist as strongly in today's
society/economy.

The Effect of WW1 on England's Economy

War boosted
employment in
London's already
large armaments
factories. Woolwich
Arsenal's workforce
rose to 75,000, of
whom 28,000 were
women, brought in
to the factory to
replace men on
military service. War
also boosted London's new engineering firms making cars and aeroplanes. In a
way, WW1 dragged England out of it's regression in technology, but it was not
necessarily beneficial to working class citizens.

The government decided to raise war funds by increasing taxes on British

citizens. Although indirect taxes raised some money, the government turned to
direct taxes, on property and income, on a far greater scale. In 1913 income
tax was only paid by 2% of the population. During the war, another 2.4 million
people would end up being eligible so by 1918, 8% were paying income tax.

Although Britain was ultimately victorious, the effects of war would be felt for
many years to come. Foreign trade, a key part of the British economy, had been
badly damaged by the war. Countries cut off from the supply of British goods
had been forced to build up their own industries so were no longer reliant on
Britain, instead directly competing with her. In 1920/21, Britain would
experience the deepest recession in its history, which would have been likely to
hit Liza and Freddie's flower store business.

Images of London in economic crisis 1910s

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