Keynes and the distribution of uncertainty: Lessons from the lancashire cotton spinning industry and the general theory

This paper attempts to demonstrate that Keynes's practical writings on the crisis in the Lancashire cotton spinning industry in the 1920s were consist ent with the 1930s theoretical conceptualisation of user costs in the Gener al Theory. It is suggested that the key (common) link between these analyse s is Keynes's concern with how uncertainty is distributed, in specific hist orical circumstances, between institutions at the levels of the firm, indus try, the industry-financial institution interface, and the local and global economies. It is this concern which still has important, if not more, rese arch and policy relevance today.