The New Order and the French Economy

332 Pages·1993·9.628 MB·English

by  Alan S. Milward

THE NEW ORDER
AND THE
FRENCH ECONOMY

THE NEW ORDER
AND THE
FRENCH ECONOMY
BY
ALAN S. MILWARD
O XFO RD
AT THE CLAREN D ON PRESS
1970
Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. i
OLASOOW NEW YOU TORONTO MUOURNB WKUNOTON
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© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1970
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD
BY VIVIAN RIDLER
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
PREFACE
I HOPB that this book, as a contribution to the history of the New Order,
will widen the debate on the nature of fascism. It is written from the stand*
point that fascism was no cancer in the body politic but a normal stage in the
historical and economic development of Europe, and that it cannot be ulti­
mately comprehended on a merely political level. Its form of economic
expression and its form of political expression cannot be meaningfully separ­
ated, the final end of both was the New Order.
The National Socialist revolution was the product of the long history of
social tensions in Germany in her transition from a rural society to an indus­
trial economy, and as such it was unique to one country. But as the history of
German economic and social development was not without its parallels in
other countries so was the National Socialist revolution not without echoes
and reverberations elsewhere, and it was itself conscious of being but the
second fascist revolution. The impact of fascism on other European states was
certainly as important as that of jacobinism in 1792 or bolshevism in 1917.
Ultimate safety for the National Socialist revolution lay in a reorganization of
Europe, the New Order.
Of the formulation of the New Order we still know little. Economists have
heaped contempt on it, most historians have been more cautious. This book
is an attempt to examine, as far as it may at present be possible, the place of
France in that New Order, and by doing so to throw some light on what
the fascist European economy would have been like. To set Europe in a
new economic and social mould imposed so dire a military necessity on the
economy of Germany, and later on the economies of the occupied states, that
the book must also be a study in the economics of conquest, a subject about
which the world has recently been remarkably reticent considering the history
of our own times. The strategic instrument by which the New Order was to be
created was the Blitzkrieg. When that failed the ‘New Economic Order’ began
its modulation into the ’European war economy’. This transmutation called
into question the basic tenets of the National Socialist revolution itself.
Neither in its birth nor in its death was National Socialism a merely national
event.
When so much is still left to be known about the revolution in Germany,
almost all indeed, it might be thought extravagant to protest that that revolu­
tion must ultimately be comprehended on a European scale. If this book
raises its critics to that extravagant level I shall be pleased. For, in the present
circumstances, it can be no more than an ignorant, patchwork history of one
part of the New Order. I can only begin what I hope others, particularly in
vi PREFACE
France, will take up, as more evidence becomes available. If my book is
utterly superseded I shall be justified, and the sooner it is so the more justified
I shall be. Nevertheless, the reader may well object that to comprehend the
New Order requires far more than a study of the economic relationships
between France and Germany. I can but sustain that objection and say that it
is my intention to write a further volume following from this one examining
the New Order elsewhere in Europe. For that reason I have begun this book
with a general essay on the liberal and fascist ideas of conquest, for fascism
was a rejection of a whole system of economic and political thought. The
reader who wishes to avoid these generalities and begin with that part of the
book which is based on historical research might start at the second chapter.
Those French documents relating to the occupation and preserved in the
Archives Nationales are covered by the fifty-year rule. When they become
available for consultation a volume far more interesting than this one can be
written. But the Archives Nationales does not have control over many papers
relating to the 'comités d’organisation* which are in some cases being safe­
guarded by less scrupulous institutions. Because of this there must be some
doubt as to what will be made public when those fifty years have run their
course. If for no other reason than this, it would have been worth while to
study Franco-German economic relations during the war from the unpublished
German materials. Outside France, perhaps in Brussels or in Moscow, there
may yet be other documentary collections dealing with these events but not
yet open to historians. In the Deutsches Zentralarchiv in Potsdam there are
documents which I would very much have liked to consult, and which might
well have modified or amplified many of the conclusions drawn here, but the
German Democratic Republic refused me permission to use that archive.
I am well aware that from one political standpoint at least the book must be
the worse for this omission. No doubt the archives administration of the
DDR. had more serious reasons for its decisions than the Goldsmiths Library
of London University, which refused me access to the books therein on the
grounds that I was not a responsible person. I do not think that the inter­
pretation of National Socialism which has emerged from East German
historical writing is any more biased than that which has emerged in the west,
and therefore I continue in the hope that I may one day see the inside of the
Deutsches Zentralarchiv.
This book had perforce to be written from the documents that were avail­
able. These were mainly in the Foreign Documents Centre of the Imperial
War Museum in London, the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, and the National
Archives of the United States in Washington. The catalogues of the Genera]
Services Administration of the National Archives of the United States and
the FindbQcher of the Bundesarchiv are now well known to historians; the
resources of the Foreign Documents Centre for no very good reason remain
PREFACE vii
neglected. They are described more fully in the ‘Note on Sources'. In addition,
I was able to use documents in the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution
and Peace at Stanford University, some private papers of Hans Hemmen,
head of the Special Commission for Economic Affairs of the German Armis­
tice Delegation, and some papers of I. G. Farben in the care of the National
Technological Lending Library, Boston Spa, Yorkshire. Of the published
collections I should single out two officially published by the French govern­
ment, La Délégation Française auprès de la Commission Allemande d* Armistice
and the nine volumes of the Commission Consultative des Dommages et des
Réparations.
The greater part of this book was written in an atmosphere of considera We
intellectual discouragement. In such circumstances I was the more dependent
on the help of many people in several countries and often at great distance.
Their friendly response showed me that generosity is not always lacking
amongst scholars. The prodigality both with his time and with his knowledge,
of M. Étienne Dejonghe of the University of Lille exceeded all bounds. His
thesis on the northern French coal-field during the occupation has begun that
process by which my own work will become out of date. Professor François
Crouzet and Monsieur F. Boudot helped me in the early stages of my work.
The unflagging energies of Dr. Ing. W. Rohland opened many avenues which
might otherwise have remained closed to me. Would we were all so interested
in the history of our own times! Dipl. Ing. Albert Speer allowed me access to
much information which a less scrupulous man would have kept for himself;
he was most kind to a person of no importance when he was engaged on
matters of much greater importance to himself. Dr. J.-J. Jäger willingly
provided help in a field where he is more expert than I. Professor E. Jäckel
and Dr. H.-J. Nordkämper helped me to gain access to Hemmen’s papers.
For permission to use those papers and for her kindness while I did so I would
like to thank Frau Ingeborg Ganse-Hemmen. Mrs Agnes Peterson of the
Hoover Institution and Dr. A. Wagner, formerly of the Bundesarchiv, pro­
vided a ready welcome and that same practical help they have given to many
others in the same field. Professor E. Malinvaud and Professor I. Berend both
provided me with information which I could not otherwise have obtained.
In addition I would like to thank Dr. M. de Cecco and Professor Gordon
Wright, as well as those many anonymous employees of the National Archives
of the United States who dispatch their blue boxes to such remote comers of
the world. They might well take the motto of the United States Post Office as
their own.
Professor W. N. Medlicott and Professor S. B. Saul both read parts of the
manuscript for me and their criticism saved me from many of my indis­
cretions. To Professor Medlicott’s warm and consistent encouragement from
the beginning I owe more than can be said here. Over a long period of research
I came to rely implicitly on the help of Dr. Leo Kahn and Miss Angela Raspin
vili PREFACE
of the Imperial War Museum. They have made the Foreign Documents Centre
there into a true centre of research; and in what other centre of research can
there be such humane company? Mrs. Nonna Alderson, although always
busy with other tasks, typed her way remorselessly and perfectly through the
manuscript and greatly helped with the design of the statistical tables. And
why should I not mention my wife? She has read every word of this book,
several times, and even written some of them.
One person above all I would like to thank, Professor M. W. Flinn, whose
huge enthusiasm for life and scholarship and whose very practical aid sus­
tained me when I wavered. There is no way to repay such debts, but I would
like this book to go some way towards it.
CONTENTS
Preface V
List of Illustrations X
List of Abbreviations xi
I. The Idea of Conquest in Liberal and
Fascist Thought 1
II. France and The New Order 23
hi. The Machinery of Exploitation 45
iv. The French Economy during the
Blitzkrieg (1940-1941) 7«
v. The Level of Exploitation Increased no
vi. What Kind of Europe? 147
vu. The Exploitation of the French
Coal Industry 181
vin. Iron Ore 210
ix. Bauxite and Aluminium 235
x. Wolfram 244
xi. Agriculture 254
xii. Conclusion 269
Note on Sources 298
Bibliography 3OI
Index 3II
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fio. I. The importance of French labour in the German war economy 125
2. The share of output for German purposes in the total output of
French industry 137
3. Output per man day worked in French coal-mines, 1938-46 (annual
averages) 201
4. The labour productivity in coal-mines in Europe, 1926-38 204
3. Labour productivity of iron-ore mines in different regions of
France 231
6. Output per man in iron-ore mines in France (including North
Africa) from January 1941 to December 1943 and increases in
employment after November 1942 over the average employment of
the preceding twelve months 232
Map I. Administrative areas of France during the occupation 53
2. Areas of strength of the resistance movement in August 1943 134