{"title":"Supporting the wartime economy: imperial maritime trade and the globalised maritime trade system, 1914–1916","authors":"M. Bailey","doi":"10.1080/21533369.2017.1331617","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The British Empire depended on international trade and financial systems for survival. These depended on general peace. The Empire could not afford extended periods of military expenditure, using civil–military and economic mechanisms to avoid the costs of an army. These demanded an efficient global maritime transport system feeding a free economic market with close industry–navy and insurance market–government–navy cooperation. These required a naval system to protect global maritime trade. The outbreak of war in 1914 stopped maritime trade, requiring rapid unprecedented government intervention to restart it. From this restart, the privately run global maritime trade system began to distort, but collapse was protracted and the commercial system showed remarkable elasticity. The imperial government progressively replaced an efficient, fluid maritime trade system based on meeting commercial demand with centralised control to meet the demands of a mobilising war economy. By July 1916 this process was complete and a remarkable example of international administration across all areas of the global and domestic economy was well advanced. The resulting centralised control of global maritime trade fed multinational economic demands of war economies: yet this broad, complex, multidisciplinary event remains largely unknown.","PeriodicalId":38023,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Maritime Research","volume":"48 1","pages":"23 - 45"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2017-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal for Maritime Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2017.1331617","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
ABSTRACT The British Empire depended on international trade and financial systems for survival. These depended on general peace. The Empire could not afford extended periods of military expenditure, using civil–military and economic mechanisms to avoid the costs of an army. These demanded an efficient global maritime transport system feeding a free economic market with close industry–navy and insurance market–government–navy cooperation. These required a naval system to protect global maritime trade. The outbreak of war in 1914 stopped maritime trade, requiring rapid unprecedented government intervention to restart it. From this restart, the privately run global maritime trade system began to distort, but collapse was protracted and the commercial system showed remarkable elasticity. The imperial government progressively replaced an efficient, fluid maritime trade system based on meeting commercial demand with centralised control to meet the demands of a mobilising war economy. By July 1916 this process was complete and a remarkable example of international administration across all areas of the global and domestic economy was well advanced. The resulting centralised control of global maritime trade fed multinational economic demands of war economies: yet this broad, complex, multidisciplinary event remains largely unknown.
期刊介绍:
The Journal for Maritime Research ( JMR ), established by the National Maritime Museum in 1999, focuses on historical enquiry at the intersections of maritime, British and global history. It champions a wide spectrum of innovative research on the maritime past. While the Journal has a particular focus on the British experience, it positions this within broad oceanic and international contexts, encouraging comparative perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches. The journal publishes research essays and reviews around 15-20 new books each year across a broad spectrum of maritime history. All research articles published in this journal undergo rigorous peer review, involving initial editor screening and independent assessment, normally by two anonymous referees.