Economic History of Europe: Twentieth Century

401 Pages·1968·35.54 MB·English

by  Shepard B. Clough, Thomas Moodie, Carol Moodie (eds.)

Economic History of Europe:
Twentieth Century
A volume
in
THE DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
of
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
ECONOMIC HISTORY
OF EUROPE:
TWENTIETH CENTURY
edited by
B.
SHEPARD CLOUGH
THOMAS MooDIE
CAROL MooDIE
Maps by Willow Roberts
Palgrave Macmillan
London • Melbourne
1969
To the memory of
WILLIAM T. GAYLE
ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE: TWENTIETH CENTURY
Preface, Chronology, Introduction, editorial notes, transla
tions by the editors, and compilation Copyright © 1968 by
Shepard B. Clough, Thomas Moodie, and Carol Moodie.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1968
First published in the United States 1968
First published in the United Kingdom by
Macmillan & Co 1969
Published by
MACMILLAN & CO LTD
Little Essex Street London w c
2
and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras
Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg
The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne
ISBN 978-1-349-00300-6 ISBN 978-1-349-00298-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00298-6
Contents
PREFACE lX
CHRONOLOGY Xlll
INTRODUCTION
I:
PART THE FIRST WoRLD WAR
Measures of Economic Mobilization: The British Example
I.
Report of the British War Cabinet, I 9 I 7 2 5
The Problem of Essential Raw Materials in Germany
2.
Address of Walther Rathenau on Germany's Provi-
sion for Raw Materials 3
I
3. The Straining of Productive Capacity: The Russian
Example
Excerpts from a Russian Report on the Shortage of
Metals, I9I6 4I
4· Labor Problems and the Employment of Women
Report on Wartime Employment of Women in Britain 46
5. Mobilization of Private Capital
French Decree on the Loan of Foreign Securities to
the State, 9 6 53
I I
6. lnterallied Cooperation
The Wheat Executive, November, I9I6 55
7. War Devastation
The Devastated Area of France, December, I9I8 58
PART II: THE PEACE SETTLEMENT
8. The Treaty of Versailles
Excerpts from the Treaty of Versailles, June, I9I9 65
9· German Reaction to the Economic Demands of the
Treaty
German Declaration on the Economic Provisions of
the Treaty, May, I9I9 87
o. The Reparation Bill
I
Schedule of Reparation Payments, May, I92 I 90
Vl CONTENTS
PART III: THE PosTWAR CRISIS
I I. Economic Chaos in Eastern Europe
Report of British Relief Mission to Central Europe,
January, I92o
1. General Summary of the Situation in I 9 I 9 97
2. Report on Poland During I 9 I 9 99
I 2. Peasant Agriculture and Land Reform in Eastern Europe
The Rumanian Land Reform, I 9 I 7-I 8 I 04
I 3. Postwar Inflation
Report of the International Financial Conference, I92o 107
I 4· The Russian Runaway Inflation
Survey of the Russian Inflation, I 9 I 9 I I I
I 5. Reconstruction in F ranee
Titles I and II of the Law on the Reparation of Dam-
ages Caused by Acts of War, April, I 9 I 9 I I 5
I6. lnterallied Debts
The Balfour Note, August, I922 I I9
I 7. The German Inflation of I 92 3
A. The Worst Phase of the Inflation, August, I 92 3 I 25
B. The Rentenbank, October, I923 127
PART IV: REcovERY AND STAGNATION, I924-29
I8. The Dawes Plan
The Dawes Committee Report, I924 I35
19· Britain's Return to the Gold Standard
Churchill's Budget Speech Announcing Britain's Re-
turn to the Gold Standard, April, I925 I48
20. Lingering Problems of Recovery
Report of the World Economic Conference, 1927 ISJ
21. A Stagnating Industry: British Shipbuilding
The Balfour Committee Report on Shipbuilding, I928 I64
22. Cartelization of Industry
The International Steel Agreement, I926 I72
PART V: SoviET EcoNOMIC PoLICY IN THE I92o's
23. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
A. Resolution of the 1oth Party Congress on the Tax
in Kind, March, I92 I I79
B. Lenin's Report on the Tax in Kind, April, I92 I I8I
CONTENTS Vll
24. The Limits of the New Economic Policy
Trotsky's Speech on the Problems of the NEP, I923 I88
5. Working Out the First Five Year Plan
2
The Development of Planning I 96
26. The Grain Crisis of I927-29
Stalin on the Peasant and Industrialization, I928 I99
7. The Third Revolution
2
Revision of the First Five Year Plan, I929 206
PART VI: THE DEPRESSION
28. The Agricultural Crisis
League of Nations Report on Agrarian Conditions,
I93I 2I5
29. The Financial Crisis
A. Hoover's Proposal for a Moratorium on War Debt
and Reparation Payments, June, I93 I 224
B. Report of the Special Advisory Committee of the
Bank for International Settlements, December,
I93I 226
30. Tariff Barriers
Chamberlain on Britain's Adoption of Protection, Feb-
ruary, 932 35
I 2
3 I. The Impact of Unemployment
A. Appeal of the Unemployed of Manchester to the
Public Authorities 242
B. Unemployment in the Middle Class 245
C. German Unemployment and the Dole 247
32. Unemployment Relief in Nazi Germany
Law for the Reduction of Unemployment, June, I933 250
33· The Popular Front in France
A. Ministerial Declaration of the Popular Front, June,
I936 256
B. Repudiation of Retrenchment 2 57
C. The Matignon Accords 2 59
D. The Forty-hour Law 260
PART VII: THE EcoNOMics oF FAsciSM
34· Regulation of Labor Relations
A. Italian Law on Corporations, April, I926 267
B. German Law for the Organization of National
Labor, January, I934 27I
CONTENTS
Vlll
3 5. Fascist Labor Recreation Organizations
Report on the Organization and Development of the
Italian Dopolavoro 2 So
36 . Land Reclamation in Italy
Report on the Progress of Land Reclamation in Italy,
I93I 285
37 . Nazi Commercial Policy
A. Economic Significance of the German-Yugoslav
Commercial Treaty of May, I934 289
B. Discussions Leading to German-Romanian Trade
Agreement, I939 292
C. German-Romanian Trade Agreement, March, I939 293
PART VIII: THE SECOND WoRLD WAR
38. British Mobilization
A. General Review of Wartime Mobilization of Labor
in Britain 299
B. Official Statement on Mobilization and Rationaliza-
tion of British Industry, I94I 304
39· Lend-Lease
The Lend-Lease Act, March, I94I 309
40. Strategic Bombing and the German War Economy
The Effects of Strategic Bombing 3 I4
4 I. Postwar Economic Problems
Report of the Committee of European Economic Co-
operation, I 94 7 3 2 5
PART IX: THE NEw EuROPE
42. The Welfare State
The Beveridge Report, I 942 3 37
43· Planning and Economic Growth: The Example of France
The Monnet Plan, I946 345
44· European Economic Cooperation
Excerpts from the Treaty of Rome, I 9 57 35 5
45· The Eastern European Experience: The Example of
Poland
A. Polish Law Nationalizing Industry, I946 368
B. Excerpts from a Resolution of the Polish Com-
munist Party, July, I956 372
BIBLIOGRAPHY 377
INDEX 381
Preface
THERE IS an embarrassingly rich supply of documentary material
for the study of Europe's economic history in the twentieth cen
tury. Any number of agencies, both public and private, gather
and preserve all kinds of information relevant to economic life.
Confronted with such wealth and variety of material, we were
required to limit the scope of this collection in a number of ways.
First of all, we omitted some topics that might ordinarily be in
cluded in economic history. Probably most notable is the absence
of any attention to economic theory, and the absence of coverage
of trade-union activity and labor history in general. Secondly,
the primary focus has been on the major industrial countries
Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and, to a lesser extent,
Italy. This is not to deny that economic life goes on in smaller
nations or agricultural countries, but only to bow to the exigencies
of space.
The organization of the material reflects our assumptions about
the significance of short-term economic change and about the re
lationship between economic and political life. It would have been
possible to pursue broad secular lines of development (such as
changing patterns of European and world trade, demographic
change, growth and capital formation, technological advance) in a
way that largely ignored the numerous and frequently violent
short-term economic fluctuations. But to do so, we felt, would
have limited too severely the definition of economic history and
would have obscured one of the most characteristic features of the
twentieth century, the tremendous extent to which economic life
has been affected by the external factors of war and political up
heaval. Thus, our chapters follow divisions that will not be un
familiar to the political historian.
Our account starts with 9 4 rather than the turn of the century
I I
because we believe that the First World War was the beginning
of the catastrophic course of twentieth-century European history,
in economic as well as political life. By contrast, the general