World War 1 Economic Mobilization

The belligerent countries believed that the Great War would be over by Christmas, but when it turned into a “total war,” they were placed in a precarious situation. The nations involved were forced to consider mass economic mobilization due to the large size, prolonged duration, and high cost of the war. Great Britain’s significant participation in the allied forces makes it an excellent case study for the tactics and efforts of economic mobilization during World War 1. For Britain, the goal was to try and meet the war’s requirements through government control while maintaining an environment where business could continue as normal. Great Britain’s economic mobilization in the world war involved, financing the war, production of weapons, allocating food and other resources and ensuring labor availability in a warring state while trying to maintain economic normalcy. An understanding of the mass mobilization in Great retain is important as it provides an insight into economic strategies that a viable in the times of crisis.

The Great War was a war that nations anticipated to end quickly. Britain joined the war with the presumption that it would end before the Christmas of 1915. With that in mind, little effort was made at the onset of the war. However, as the war progressed, that became unlikely. The requirements of the war and the tactics adopted meant that the government had in one way or another consider mass economic mobilization. The United Kingdom introduced blockades to its enemies to starve them. The Germans, on the other hand, used their U-boats to interrupt the trade that the British most relied upon for agricultural products. By employing economic sabotage tactics, the governments involved were compelled to exercise control over their economies. The level of Government involvement varied between the warring countries. Germany exercised total control over the economic mechanisms of the country. It had total control over production and labor distribution. Britain tried to strike a balance in its control of the economy. Though it influenced the private economy, Britain did so in a cautious manner by involving businesspeople in the war efforts. It even employed a Union Leader as a minister of labor. The British Government partnered with private companies where possible to facilitate the war efforts. In essence, they tried to minimize the government impact on the private sector while trying to ensure that the war efforts are aided by the private sector. In France, the private sector was left to function independently. It was a complete contrast from Germany that had total control of the country’s economy.

The British can be said to have initiated total war from the early days of the Great War. Perhaps it was the nation that anticipated a short war and only the insiders knew that the war would take longer. The implementation of the Defense of the Realm Act a week after the declaration of war is a clear indication that the legislators of Westminster anticipated a war that could require massive economic mobilization. The Act provided the government with the greater power of control over the nation’s activities to defend against an invasion. Some of the economic impacts of the legislation involved labor activities. The legislation was the one that introduced the concept of daylight saving to increase the working hours in a day. There were other measures that the act imposed to ensure the efficiency of its labor force. The closing hours of pubs were reduced from midnight to ten o’clock in the evening. The Act further reduced the strength of beer by requiring the breweries to dilute the drink further. These efforts were meant to increase the level of labor participation in the war efforts.

The Defense Act enable the British economy to be mobilized into a war economy. There are attributes that warranted the government complete power over the war efforts. One of the considerable power that the Act provided the Government was the power to requisition any land or building whenever it needed them for the war effort. That was a power that was necessary especially when they had to commandeer the commons for the agricultural purposes. As of 1915, the level of control of the Government in the British economy surged. The control increased due to the ‘Shell Crisis.’ The British were losing battles on several fronts due to the lack of adequate shells. At that time, the Government relied on the private sector to provide adequate shells. When the private sector failed, the government saw it fit to take over the control of essential commodities that were required in the running of the war. The ‘Shell Crisis’ facilitated the formation of the Ministry of Munitions which was simply an outfit meant to manage and control the resources needed for the war. Such a ministry would not have existed in peacetime, but given the need to protect its borders, the British citizens were welcome to the idea. The establishment of the Munitions ministry instigates a ‘total war.’ All the civilian societies, the economy, and labor allocation strategies only came second to the war efforts.

The government had to get involved in food production during the Great War. The German U-Boats were sinking the food imports from the United States and thus threatened the British war efforts. Before the war, the Britons got most of their food through imports. The main supplier of their cereals was the United States. The activities of the U-boats threatened this supply. The British instead of producing cereals had increased their meat production. However, given that the war was lengthy and interfered with their food supply, the government had to take measures that warranted their food security. The government commandeered the unused land to increase food production. The lands that were under government control included disused blocks and parks. The government also took control of the commons and used them for the production of cereals. These measures essentially affected the production of meat in the British economy. These efforts were however successful in increasing the level of cereals grown in the UK and leave little dependence on imports. It is suggested that the British were able to increase their agricultural output since there was room for improvement. They had initially relied on imports, and thus it was easy to use their resources to boost food production. Despite the war, the British had little concerns about the food supply. It was only in the last months of the war the food rationing was introduced in the economy. The rationing was limited to a few products, and only a few local governments were able to implement it. There were some measures that ensured that no food was wasted. Some of the legislation included no throwing of rice at weddings and the prohibition of feeding wild animals.

A major economic mobilization effort was in the supply of labor. The government had to balance between the domestic labor supply and the supply of troops in the war fields. A majority of the labor force had joined the countries labor force. On the other hand, the demand for munitions had increased, and thus an increase of production was needed. At the onset of the total war, the British relied on volunteer fighters. However, as the war progressed, the number of volunteers decreased due to the losses in some battles. The British government, therefore, introduced the conscription systems to ensure that it had an adequate fighting force. The conscripted men were once vital in the production of goods in the British economy. The British therefore employed more women in the industries to facilitate production. Old men and young boys were further introduced into the labor force. The working hours were lengthened. It was a guarantee that the safety conditions in the factories were depleted in the war efforts. To ensure that there was no labor unrest, the union leader was appointed as the head of the labor ministry. In essence, the involvement of private parties in the war efforts ensured that there was little rebellion from the private sector that could have impacted the economic mobilization efforts. The labor force was not fully civilian. The conscripted soldiers were the ones that largely participated in the production process and especially those that involved arms.

The war had considerable impacts on the British economy. The British economy is said to have grown during the war period while that of Germany declining greatly. The increase in the GDP of Britain had increased despite it being the main financier of the Allied forces before the US joined the war. Perhaps the increase was due to the shift in the British economy into arms production and an increase in its agricultural output. However, the debt of Great Britain increased during the war period. The government was forced to borrow from the public through bonds and borrow heavily from the United States. On the population side, the war took a great tall. The 1918 population was only 2% above the 1913 population before the start of the war. However, the employment participation rate had increased by 5.8% due to the increased demands of the war. The labor rate participation can be attributed to the army conscripts. The civilian labor force is said to have declined by 15 percent. The number of women in civil employment increased by close to 50 percent. It was quite impressive how the female penetration was in male-dominated fields. The women still retained their participation in the textile industry during the war. They were however allowed into the metal and chemical industries which were once the preserve of their male counterparts.

The mobilization effect was further considered in the production of arms and munitions. The massive scale of the war required that the warring nations to device better approaches to source and produce the arms and munitions. At the onset of the total war, most countries like Great Britain lacked the production capacities that were capable of procuring the required weapons for a ‘total war.’ The creation of the Munitions Ministry was done to address that particular shortfall. The increased munitions demand meant that the steel output demand was necessary. The ‘Shell Crisis’ was reflective of the need for Great retain to regulate its steel and other mineral output. The munitions ministry began by increasing the production capacity of the British munition factories. That meant making the publication of most munition companies. There was, therefore, a need to ensure that the steel production also expanded. The government did, however, experience a decline in the production of iron ores. The problem was that Great Britain was not able to increase the import of iron ores. The trade embargos that existed, the disruption of trade by enemy forces and the increased demand for the ore by the friendly countries meant that increasing iron ore imports became relatively impossible. The Ministry of munitions tackled this deficit by increasing the use of scrap iron. The ministry further provided incentives to encourage research in the steel industry. The stimulus was beneficial since new and high-grade steel allows were developed for use in tanks and a wide array of armaments.

The government had to mobilize its spending and revenues to ensure a successful campaign. The British budget increased exponentially in 1915, and the government budget deficit increased as well. These were measures that would have been outrightly declined a peacetime UK. The deficit was to be compensated by unprecedented taxation levels which increased the financial burden on the citizens. The cost was initially driven by the fighting force. The expenditure was however turned to munitions and shipping costs. Winning the war became based on arming the fighting force. The challenge for the government was to increase the revenue in wartime when its trade routes were compromised. The government did try through raising debt, increasing taxation and inflation.

It was at this time that the government had a preference for direct taxes over indirect taxes. Initially, the profits of a company were taxed on shareholder earnings. Companies were not required to remit taxes directly. However, as the war progressed, the legislation was altered, and the government could tax the company directly instead of going through its shareholders. To raise more taxes, the government increase excise duty on what was considered British staples. The ‘’McKenna Duties’’ were introduced to increase the taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and tea. The government also increase income taxes as well as property taxes. The government increased revenue in income taxes by increasing the tax rate and ensuring that more people were within the tax bracket. That involved reducing the exemption limit and through inflation in the war economy. Another war innovation was the Excess Profits Duty. The profits targeted the profits that were those that exceeded a level considered to be a peacetime standard. It was successful since it ranged from 50 percent to 80 percent during the war period. It generated nearly a third of total revenues collected by the state. There is no doubt that the excessive taxation in the economy was invasive. The government was increasing its control on private activities, but it was not opposed since people were in a ‘’total war’’.

The other source of mobilized financing was increasing the national debt. In 1914 the national debt as a share GDP was 26% but increased to 127.5 percent in 1919. The composition of debt also changed during the war. Other debts were borrowed from international partners and more so the US. The share of funded marketable securities was gradually replaced by unfunded marketable securities. The government also sought a rather unconventional approach to inflation. The government increased the liquidity injection in the economy. The money base was increased and thus increased the inflation levels.

The Ministry of Munitions was the main government body that was involved in the economic mobilization of Great Britain. The ministry developed a great deal of regulation but avoided the full control of private industries. The main strategy was through coordinating with private firms as well as co-optation. That was unlike Germany which resorted to command and compulsion of private firms. They encouraged private firms to be involved in war production and tried to build more public factories to meet the deficits of their private counterparts. The market-based elements were retained, and the government tried to sponsor competition in the private sector. In employment issues, the government tried to leave the employment relations to the labor market. In essence, the British government tried as much as possible to maintain a capitalistic market and not an administrative market. It was only at the end of the war that the government was forced to get involved in administrative strategies such as those of food rationing.

The German air raids in the Great War had a direct impact on the civilian efforts in the war. The Germans intended that the bombs would increase an antiwar rhetoric among the British. What the bombing did was to increase the recruitment efforts of the war. The civilians were able to understand the threat they faced. The air raids did little to limit the production of weapons in Britain. Most of the bombs destroyed private residences instead of strategic military bases. What the bombing did was increase the participation of the civilians in the war efforts. They were trained in the creation of shelters and manning evacuation procedures during air raids. The civilians were mostly angered as the bombs killed children. It is therefore clear that the bombings were rather unsuccessful since they failed to destroy strategic military tactics and assisted the British government to rally the civilians for the war efforts.

The Great War required massive economic mobilization for warring countries like Britain. The Defense of the Realm Act and the Ministry of Munitions were the main tools employed by the British government in mobilizing the economy during the war. The government focused on the production of arms and agricultural produce, the sourcing of raw materials, the mobilization of labor, the distribution of food and the sourcing of war finances. The government’s main strategy was co-opting and coordinating with businesspeople from the private sector to ensure that government control did not disrupt the capitalistic market. The approaches undertaken such as increasing taxes and rationing food were extreme and would only work in a warring economy. The “business as usual” approach by the government seemed to be successful since the British economy was not wanting at the end of the war.

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