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Book Review [by Sal Compagno] and a Selection from:
Capitalism at War: Industrial Policy and Bureaucracy in France, 1914-1918
by John F. Godfrey,
1987, Berg Publishers.
ISBN 0-85496-519-X |
In the study of World Wars readers are often exposed to the military and political aspects of the conflict. The battles, the training, the political manuverings etc seem to dominate the literature. In the broad perspective of war writings focus is often directed to the military struggle and campaigns. Lives of generals, admirals, and airmen become the central theme of much of the literary art.
It is refreshing to come across another view which completes many of the unkown aspects of war and that is the homefront reaction and support for the war effort. Such is the theme of John F. Godfrey’s Capitalism At War. Largely Ignored, his research encompases the vast reaction of France to her invasion in August, 1914. World War I was truly as much a revolution as was 1789.
John Godfrey is a Canadian whose brilliant scholarship in the internal atmosphere of wartime France will stand as a milestone of some significance. He has provided a glimpse of the seldom understood and subtle changes the war continues to influence.
Sal Compagno, 2004
Here is an excellent example of the author's presentation:
Profits and Swindles
Broadly speaking, one can discuss two categories of ‘war profiteer’ in France during the First World War: the established industrialist and the out and out swindler. Many profits were earned ‘legitimately’, that is, as a result of negotiations with representatives of the government, who, for reasons of inexperience or urgency, failed to defend the interests of the state as efficiently as they might have. But there are also numerous examples of contracts signed under the most extraordinary conditions. . . A certain Lucien Kahn, an old gaol-bird who was wont to use an assumed title of nobility, won a contract worth 10 million francs. The bureaucrat who awarded him the contract immediately resigned his post and went into partnership with Kahn. In the end the state suffered a net loss of 6.5 million francs on the contract. Fly-by-night operators with no industrial experience whatever applied for and were rewarded with armament contracts. One such was Madame Caron, a painter, who bid for contracts involving clothing, camping equipment, shoes, boots, barbed-wire, machine-guns, motorcycles, automobiles, lorries, 60 million litres of petrol, 50,000 horses, dried vegetables, cod, condensed milk, copper sulphate and railway cars. Her perseverance was rewarded, and she eventually won two contracts to furnish 60,000 snow-boots; she delivered 10,000.
The Objects of Industry's Attentions
Non-delivery was a feature common to the operating procedures of many of these self-styled entrepreneurs. A typical case was that of a certain Monsieur Junot, who in March 1916 bid for a contract for shell casings, which he proposed to produce in two factories which he claimed to own in Paris. On 11 May, he signed a contract to produce 37,500 casings within three months at a price of 9 francs each, at a time when the average price being paid was only 6.5 francs. By 10 July, his company, the Industrielle Française, had delivered only 1,722 casings, and a check revealed that his Paris factories were closed and that he had moved to Montry. At Montry, there was no evidence that any casings were being manufactured. When the three months stipulated in the contract had elapsed, government officials attempted to locate Junot to tell him his contract had been annulled, but failed to do so, as he had no fixed address. In the meantime, another entrepreneur, Pamaron by name, essayed a further variation on the same swindle. Claiming to be a partner. of Junot in the Industrelle Française, he applied to the Ironworks Administration (Direction des Forges) for permission to complete the contract. He maintained that he had several factories at his disposal, but it was soon discovered that, in reality, he had previously been involved in property rental and publicity, and that he owned no factories. This time the government refused to be taken in, and Pamaron’s bid was dismissed. The profit in this kind of operation was made from the advances paid by the government in anticipation of the delivery of the finished products.
There were innumerable other cases of fraud, large and small, detected and undetected, by old established firms and by newcomers, which took place during the war. They ranged from the simplest of operations, such as changing a figure 1 to a figure 7 when requesting scarce material, practiced by the Grenoble firm of Gautier Frères et Chamoux, to the highly sophisticated larceny of Frank Goldsoll, who embezzled $3.5 million by pretending to sell American lorries to the French government. The moral boundary between business acuity and criminal activity was constantly shifting, and a commercial operation which ultimately landed one man in gaol might land another a job in the government.
Sources and Thanks: The photos here from the reviewer's collection.
Created: 23 September 2004
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