Economic history of World War I
The economic history of World War I covers the methods used by the First World War (1914–1918), as well as related postwar issues such as war debts and reparations. It also covers the economic mobilization of labour, industry, and agriculture leading to economic failure. It deals with economic warfare such as the blockade of Germany, and with some issues closely related to the economy, such as military issues of transportation. For a broader perspective see home front during World War I.
All of the powers in 1914 expected a short war; none had made any economic preparations for a long war, such as stockpiling food or critical raw materials. The longer the war went on, the more the advantages went to the Allies, with their larger, deeper, more versatile economies and better access to global supplies. As Stephen Broadberry and Mark Harrison conclude, once stalemate set in late in 1914: "The greater Allied capacity for taking risks, absorbing the cost of mistakes, replacing losses, and accumulating overwhelming quantitative superiority should eventually have turned the balance against Germany".[1]
The Allies had much more potential wealth they could spend on the war. One estimate (using 1913 US dollars) is that the Allies spent $147 billion on the war and the Central Powers only $61 billion, but Germany concentrates the largest industrial conglomerate in the Rhineland region. Among the Allies, Britain and its Empire spent $47 billion and the U.S. $27 billion (America joined after the war started) while among the Central Powers, Germany spent $45 billion.[2]
Total war demanded total mobilization of all the nation's resources for a common goal. Manpower had to be channeled into the front lines (all the powers except the United States and Britain had large trained reserves designed just for that). Behind the lines labour power had to be redirected away from less necessary activities that were luxuries during total war. In particular, vast munitions industries had to be built up to provide shells, guns, warships, uniforms, airplanes, and a hundred other weapons both old and new. Agriculture had to provide food for both civilians and for soldiers (some of whom had been farmers and needed to be replaced by women, children and the elderly who now did the work without animal assistance) and for horses to move supplies. Transportation, in general, was a challenge, especially when Britain and Germany each tried to intercept merchant ships headed for the enemy. Finance was a special challenge. Germany financed the Central Powers. Britain financed the Allies until 1916 when it ran out of money and had to borrow from the United States. The U.S. took over the financing of the Allies in 1917 with loans that it insisted be repaid after the war. The victorious Allies looked to defeated Germany in 1919 to pay reparations that would cover some of their costs. Above all, it was essential to conduct the mobilization in such a way that the short term confidence of the people was maintained, the long-term power of the political establishment was upheld, and the long-term economic health of the nation was preserved.[3]
Diplomatic history of World War I
Economic warfare
Home front during World War I
Blum, Matthias, Eloranta, Jari, Osinsky, Pavel: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
"Organization of War Economies"
Horn, Martin: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Economic Planning before 1914
Caglioti, Daniela L.: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
"Property Rights and Economic Nationalism"
Ullmann, Hans-Peter: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
"Organization of War Economies (Germany)"
Gross, Stephen: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
"War Finance (Germany)"
Hardach, Gerd: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War "Finance and Monetary Consequences: The German Case Revisited"
Butschek, Felix: , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
"Organization of War Economies (Austria-Hungary)"
Pogány, Ágnes: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Austria-Hungary)
Gatrell, Peter: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Organization of War Economies (Russian Empire)
Marks, Steven G.: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Russian Empire)
Heywood, Anthony: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Russian Empire)
Horn, Martin: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Great Britain and Ireland)
Godden, Christopher: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Great Britain and Ireland)
Baubeau, Patrice: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (France)
Le Bras, Stéphane: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (France)
Luyten, Dirk: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Belgium)
Luyten, Dirk: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Belgium)
Degli Esposti, Fabio: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Italy)
Degli Esposti, Fabio: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Italy)
Rafailović, Jelena: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Organization of War Economies and War Finance (South East Europe)
Innerhofer, Ian: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (South East Europe)
Morawski, Wojciech: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (East Central Europe)
Richter, Klaus: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Agrarian Economic Policies (East Central Europe)
Pallaver, Karin: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Organization of War Economies (Africa)
Walker-Said, Charlotte: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Africa)
Sánchez Picón, Andrés, García Gómez, José Joaquín: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (Spain)
Pedersen, Jan: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (Denmark)
Klemann, Hein A. M.: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (The Netherlands)
Straumann, Tobias: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (Switzerland)
Yule, Peter: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Organization of War Economies (Australia)
Mann, Jatinder: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Australia)
McKinnon, Malcolm: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (New Zealand)
Pitts, Graham: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Organization of War Economies (Ottoman Empire/Middle East)
Ozavci, Ozan: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Ottoman Empire)
Schewe, Eric: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Middle East)
Barlas, Dilek: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Turkey)
Frölich, Hajo: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (China)
Schiltz, Michael: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Wartime and Post-war Economies (Japan)
Sakamoto, Yuichiro: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Japan)
Amaral, Luciano, Silva, Álvaro da: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
War Finance (Portugal)
Bulmer-Thomas, Victor: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Post-war Economies (Latin America)
Ahlstrom, David. "The hidden reason why the First World War matters today: The development and spread of modern management." Brown Journal of World Affairs 21 (2014): 201+ .
online
Aldcroft, Derek. The European Economy 1914–2000 (Routledge, 2002)
Balderston, Theo. "Industrial Mobilization and War Economies," in John Horn, ed. Companion to World War I (2012) 217-233
Beckett, Ian F. W. The Great War: 1914–1918 (2007) pp 204–15, 242–279, 315–36
. War costs and their financing: a study of the financing of the war and the after-war problems of debt and taxation (1921) online
Bogart, Ernest Ludlow
Bogart, E.L. Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War (2nd ed. 1920) ; comprehensive coverage of every major country; another copy online free Archived 2016-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
online 1919 1st edition
online
Clark, John Maurice, Walton Hale Hamilton, and Harold Glenn Moulton, eds. Readings in the Economics of War (U, Chicago Press, 1918) pp 126–668
online free
Cronin, James E. "Labor Insurgency and Class formation: comparative perspectives on the crisis of 1917–1920 in Europe." Social Science History (1980) 4#1 pp 125–152.
Encyclopædia Britannica
full text of vol 30 ABBE to ENGLISH HISTORY online free
Ferguson, Niall. The Pity of War: Explaining World War One (1999), wide-ranging overview, esp. pp 105–42, 248–81, 395–432
Fisk, Harvey E. The Inter-Ally Debts: An Analysis of War and Post-War Public Finance, 1914-1923 (1924) Archived 2017-04-05 at the Wayback Machine
online
Hardach, Gerd. First World War: 1914–1918 (1981) the standard world economic history of the war
Horn, Martin. Britain, France, and the Financing of the First World War (2002)
Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (1987) pp 256–74
Mendershausen, Horst. The Economics of War (1940)
online
Smith, Andrew, Simon Mollan, and Kevin D. Tennent, eds. The impact of the First World War on international business (Routledge, 2016).
Strachan, Hew. The First World War: Volume I: To Arms (Oxford UP, 2001); "Financing the war," pp 815–993; "Industrial mobilization," pp 993–1113
excerpt and text search
Stevenson, David. With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (2011), pp 350–438, covers economies of major countries in 1918
Thorp, William Long. Business Annals: United States, England, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Sweden Netherlands, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Australia, India, Japan, China (1926) capsule summary of conditions in each country for each quarter-year 1790–1925
Tipton, Frank B., and Robert Aldrich. An Economic and Social History of Europe, 1890–1939 (1987). pp 135–62
Tucker, Spencer E., ed. European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia (1999)