Though overall Australia accounted for less than 10 per cent of the UK’s bilateral trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Australia was among the UK’s largest sources of wheat imports and at times accounted for more than 50 per cent of the UK’s wool imports (Mitchell and Deane 1962; Mitchell and Jones 1971).
During the same period, according to retrospective studies, the unemployment rate rose from about 3 percent to nearly 25 percent, and many of those lucky enough to have a job were able to work only part-time.