<P> After the war, the continued operation of the War Precautions Act led to considerable social and political unrest in late 1918 and into 1919 and a number of violent incidents broke out . The most notable of these was the so - called Red Flag Riots in Brisbane, in 1919 . </P> <P> At the outset of the war, Australia's economy had been quite small and dependent largely upon agriculture and the resources industries for export earnings, while most manufactured products were imported from overseas . Almost immediately uncertainty over the continuation of foreign trade led to a rise in unemployment, indeed it was estimated that after only a couple of days of Britain having declared war, that up to 15,000 men had been retrenched in New South Wales alone due to concerns about the continued availability of foreign markets for Australian produce . </P> <P> These initial concerns, however, were short lived, at least in the beginning as the British government provided assurances that it would underwrite a large amount of the war risk insurance for shipping in order to allow trade amongst the Commonwealth to continue . Shortly thereafter the wartime direction of trade began when the British asked the Australian government to place certain restrictions upon overseas trade in order to secure resources vital to the war effort and to limit the ability of the Central Powers from obtaining these goods from Commonwealth nations via neutral third parties . To an extent these restrictions served to reduce the ability of Australian producers to find buyers for their products, at least initially, however, in many cases the British stepped in to buy these goods, thus alleviating Australian concerns about a significant reduction in the standard of living . This understanding proved particularly beneficial for the wool and wheat industries, where the British government undertook to buy Australian products even though the shortage of shipping meant that there was no chance that they would ever receive them . </P> <P> On the whole Australian commerce was expanded due to the war, although the cost of the war was quite considerable and the Australian government had to borrow considerably from overseas to fund the war effort . In terms of value, Australian exports rose almost 45 per cent, while the number of Australians employed in the manufacturing industry increased over 11 per cent . This was due in the most part to the reduced ability of traditional sources to continue supplying Australia with manufactured products, which out of necessity stimulated the development of the Australian manufacturing industry . </P>

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