Wage and price controls freeze wages and prices at a certain
point in time, and perhaps establish procedures for gradually adjusting wages
and prices. Episodes of hyperinflation and wars have most often laid the
groundwork for the enactment of programs of wage and price controls. Inflation
is rising prices, but also can be defined as a decrease in the purchasing power
of a unit of money.
In 1793 the government of the French Revolution initiated a system of price
controls that became known as the Law of the Maximum. A decree of 29 September
1793 empowered district administrations with the authority to set commodity
prices at rates one-third higher than the levels of 1790. The decree granted
municipal authorities the responsibility for setting wages at 50 percent higher
than the 1790 level. In 1794 the Committee on Provisions issued an enormous
schedule of the national Maximum, or price list. Each district added
transportation costs, 5 percent profit for the wholesaler and 10 percent for the
retailer, and then published a catalog of prices. Hoarding commodities to avoid
selling at controlled prices was punishable by death. Despite the government’s
involvement in the forcible requisitioning of supplies, the controlled economy
of the Revolution broke down. In December 1794 the government suppressed the Law
of the Maximum.
The American colonies experimented with wage and price controls to cope with
shortages in commodities and labor. In 1623 the governor of Virginia issued a
proclamation fixing prices and profit rates. The proclamation issued a list of
prices embracing goods ranging from Canadian fish to wine vinegar. A war with
Indians apparently created a shortage of goods that led to the controls. The
colonial government lifted the controls in 1641. In 1630 the Massachusetts Bay
Colony enacted a schedule of wages for skilled workers, coupled with a limit on
the markup for finished goods. In 1633 a law banning all “excessive wages and
prices” displaced the scale of wages and limitation on markups.
The colonists turned again to wage and price controls to protect themselves
from the wave of hyperinflation that struck the colonial economy during the War
of Independence. The Continental Congress did not have the power to impose wage
and price controls and remained split on the efforts of state governments to
control prices and wages. The New England colonies enacted legislation to
control prices, but the southern colonies demurred. Goods flowed to regions
where prices remained free to rise with market conditions, and state efforts to
control prices failed.
During the United States Civil War inflation surged in the northern states,
and reached hyperinflation proportions in the Confederacy. Neither the North nor
the South enacted a system of wage and price controls during that conflict,
perhaps reflecting the ascendancy of laissez-faire economics during the
nineteenth century.
During World War I virtually all the belligerent powers resorted to systems of wage and price controls. By then
inventions such as the typewriter had increased the administrative efficiency of
governments. In the United States wholesale prices had risen 60 percent above
their 1914 level when Congress declared war on Germany. The United States
government made use of as many as eight government agencies to control prices.
The War Industries Board controlled the prices of many basic raw materials. The
Food Administration set the prices for many staple foods, such as wheat and
livestock. Inflation slowed substantially, contributing to a general feeling
that the controls were a success. The controls were lifted at the end of the war
amid some talk that the controls should be extended to the peacetime
economy.
In 1936 Germany imposed a comprehensive system of wage and price controls
that remained in effect for 12 years. This system of controls was part of
Germany’s centrally planned economy that was directed toward military
mobilization. When the Allied occupation governments kept the controls in place
at the end of World War II, black markets sprang up to meet the needs for
certain supplies. Germany’s rapid economic growth began after the controls were
lifted in 1948.
During World War II many countries established some form of wage and price
controls to contain inflation. The United States went to a comprehensive system
of wage and price regulation in 1942. The Office of Price Administration had to
approve of price increases and a National War Labor Board approved of wage
increases. The main effect of the controls in the United States lay in the
postponement of inflation until after the war. The United States briefly turned
again to wage and price controls during the Vietnam War.
The use of wage and price controls to suppress inflation runs the risk that
black markets will emerge, and that producers will secretly reduce the quality
of products to save money. The reduction in the quality of products, which
forces consumers to buy them more frequently, defeats the purpose of the
controls.
See also:
References:
Blinder, Alan S. 1979. Economic Policy and the Great
Stagflation.
Rockoff, Hugh. 1984. Drastic Measures: A History of Wage and
Price Controls in the United States.