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Abstract
Competition between Germany and the West for access to Russian raw materials in 1918 reflected the exceptional importance of raw materials to both the war effort and to plans for the post-war. Anxieties about the weaknesses in their own strategies were reflected in reports on both sides about the enemy gaining access to Russian material when they themselves could not. These anxieties highlighted competing ideas about the ability of markets to allow coercive pressure to be exerted at a distance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Winfried Baumgart, Deutsche Ostpolitik 1918: Von Brest-Litovsk bis zum Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1966); Oleh Fedyshyn, Germany’s Drive to the East and the Ukrainian Revolution, 1917–1918 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1971); Wolfdieter Bihl, Österreich-Ungarn und die Friedensschlüsse von Brest-Litovsk (Vienna: Verlag Böhlau, 1970).
2 Peter Borowsky, Deutsche Ukrainepolitik 1918: Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Wirtschaftsfragen (Lübeck: Matthiesverlag, 1970); Fritz Fischer, Germany’s Aims in the First World War (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1967); Claus Remer, Die Ukraine im Blickfeld deutscher Interessen: ende des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1917/18 (Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 1997); Martin Kitchen, ‘Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Rumania’, The Slavonic and East European Review, 54, no. 2 (1976), 214-30.
3 Hew Strachan, The First World War (New York, Penguin Books, 2005); Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I (New York: Basic Books, 2014).
4 Thomas J. Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992); Trygve Throntveit, Power without Victory: Woodrow Wilson and the American Internationalist Experiment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017).
5 Charles E. Neu, Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson’s Silent Partner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
6 Norman E. Saul, War and Revolution: The United States and Russia, 1917–1921 (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2001), George Kennan, Russia Leaves the War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989); David S. Fogelsong, America’s Secret War Against Bolshevism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).
7 Christine White, British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918–1924 (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2017).
8 David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 296-346; Carl Parrini, Heir to Empire: United States Economic Diplomacy, 1916–1923 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969).
9 Nicholas Mulder, The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022); Jamie Martin, The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2022); Patricia Clavin and Madeleine Dungy, ‘Trade, Law and the Global Order of 1919’, Diplomatic History 44, no. 4 (2020), 554-79.
10 On economic war aims: Georges-Henri Soutou, L’Or et le Sang: Les buts de guerre économiques de la Premiére Guerre mondiale (Paris: Fayard, 1989). On the international economy and the war: Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931 (New York: Viking Press, 2014); Adam Tooze and Ted Fertik, ‘The World Economy and the Great War’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 40, no. 2 (2014), 219–20. On economic war and blockade: Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War (Cambridge, MA, 2012); A.C. Bell, A History of the Blockade of Germany and of the countries associated with her in the Great War: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1961), 632-44.
11 Reconstruction Committee, ‘German Post-War Economic Policy: State Controlled Foreign Trade versus Unrestricted Economic Internationalism’, April 1917, The National Archive, UK, (TNA) CAB 24/17/64; ‘German Post-War Economic Policy. The Bearing of American Intervention upon German Post-War Economic Plans’, undated, presumably April 1917, TNA CAB 24/10/10; Political Intelligence Department, ‘Memorandum on Recent German Pronouncements on Economic Policy’, 14 June 1918, TNA CAB 24/54/87; ‘Western and General report No. 46, Week ending 12th December 1917’, TNA CAB 24/147/21.
12 ‘Trade War. A Rough Preliminary Note by Mr. Montagu’, 8 October 1917, TNA CAB 24/4/11.
13 A.H. Stanley, ‘Notes in Sir Edward Carson’s Memorandum’, 4 October 1917, TNA CAB 24/4/8.
14 ‘Economic Offensive. Reports presented by the Committee in Trade Relations of the United Kingdom within the Empire’, 8 May 1918, TNA CAB 24/50/70.
15 ‘Control of Raw Materials. Interim Report No. 5 of a Committee Appointed by the War Cabinet to Consider the Question of an Economic Offensive’, November 1917, TNA CAB 24/4/26.
16 Robert Cecil, ‘Memorandum on Proposals for Diminishing the Occasion of Future Wars’, Yale Manuscript and Archives (Yale) Colonel House Papers, MS 466, Box 181 Folder 1/9.
17 ‘President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points’, <https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp> [accessed 2 November 2022].
18 Woodrow Wilson, Address of 4 December 1917, quoted by Walter Lippmann in ‘The American Program and International Law’, Yale, The Inquiry Papers, Yale MS 8 Box 14 Folder 193.
19 Address of the President of the United State Delivered as a Joint Session of the Two Houses of Congress, February 11, 1918’, in Papers Related to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1918 Supplement 1 The World War, Vol. 1 <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Supp01v01/d59> [accessed November 2022]. Wilson was slightly more direct in a draft version of 8 February: ‘Draft Address to a Joint Session of Congress, Feb 8, 1918’, Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Volume 46, January 16–March 12, 1918, ed. by Arthur S. Link (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 275, 277.
20 Walter Lippman, ‘Draft of a Reply to the Proposals of the Central Powers’, 31 December 1917, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) RG 256 Special Report 688. See also Sidney Mezes, David Hunter Miller, and Walter Lippmann, ‘The Present Situation. The War Aims and Peace Terms it Suggests’, 22 December 1917, NARA RG 256 Special Report 887; Throntveit, 246-59.
21 For the ideological role that Wilson’s formulation played: Political Intelligence Department, ‘Economic Offensive Committee. Memorandum by the Chairman’, January 1918, TNA CAB 24/4/41; ‘The United States and the Economic Defensive’ 29 June 1918, TNA CAB 24/57/18.
22 Verein Deutscher Eisen- und Stahl-Industrieller to Staatssekretär des Reichswirtschaftsamt, 13. December 1917, Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde (BL) R901/81068 bl 12.
23 ‘Niederschrift über die Chefbesprechung am 18. Juni 1918, betreffend wirtschaftliche Maßnahmen in der Ukraine’, BL R3101/1168 bl 251; Staatssekretär von Stein to Reichskanzler, 28 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 159.
24 Reichsbank-Direktorium to Helfferich, 8 December 1917, BL R704/52 bl 11; Reichsbank-Direktorium to Helfferich, 20 December 1917, BL R704/52 bl 29; Reichsbank-Direktorium to Staatsekretär des Auswärtigen Amtes, 13 December 1917, BL R704/52 bl 54.
25 Kriegsausschuß der deutschen industrie to Reichskanzler, 7 January 1918, BL R 901/81071.
26 Memorandum, Russian Peace Terms, 10 December 1917, TNA CAB 24/36/14; Robertson to War Cabinet, 3 January 1918, TNA CAB 24/37/91.
27 Roland Dixon, ‘Central Asia and the Steppe’, 14 October 1916, NARA RG 256 Special Reports Record 127 <https://catalog.archives.gov/id/26984105?objectPage=168> [accessed 22 December 2022]; Louis H. Gray, ‘Analysis and Criticism of W. Daya, (Werner Karfunkelstein), Der Aufmarsch im Osten: Russisch-Asien als deutsches Kriegs- und Wirtschaftssiel. Dachau/München’, July 1918, NARA RG 256 Special Reports Record 193 <https://catalog.archives.gov/id/26987492?objectPage=957> [accessed 22 December 2022]; F.A. Golder, ‘Ukraine’, 15 February 1918, NARA RG 256 Special Reports Record 188 <https://catalog.archives.gov/id/26987492?objectPage=474> [accessed 22 December 2022]. In the Inquiry’s economic files is a lengthy report from the War Industries Board on Russian raw materials: Statistics Division, War Industry Board, Report 91, 15 June 1918, ‘Industrial Condition in Russia’, NARA RG 256 Box 102, Folder 73.
28 Balfour to House, 6 March 1918, Yale, Colonel House Papers, MSS 466, Box 10, Select Correspondence, Folder 289.
29 Telegram Balfour to Reading, 16 March 1918, TNA FO 800/205, 251.
30 Colville Barclay, memorandum by British Chargé d’affaires for the British Embassy to the United States, 28 January 1918, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 46, 154–5. This was a line of argument with support in the United States: Sydney Mezes to Executive Committee of The Inquiry, ‘What was Russia’, 14 June 1918, Columbia University, Rare Books & Manuscripts (Columbia), Sidney Edward Mezes Papers, MS#0872, Box 1.
31 Staatssekretär von Stein to Reichskanzler, 28 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl. 159.
32 Peter Gatrell, ‘The First World War and War Communism, 1914–1920’, in The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945, ed. by R.W. Davies, Mark Harrison, and S.G. Wheatcroft (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 219; Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 81; J.N. Westwood, ‘Transport’, in Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 163.
33 Bericht Rudolf Petersen, 28 May 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 129–130; ‘Bericht über die Einkaufstätigkeit des Kriegsauchusses für Oele und Fette in den Gebieten des ehemaligen russischen Kaiserreiches’, 21 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 57; Diplomatische Vertretung in Moskau (Dr. List) to Reichskanzler, 2 July 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 133.
34 Watson, 497.
35 Gesandschaft, Stockholm, to Reichskanzler, 13 March 1918, BL R901/81075 bl 13.
36 Heinrich Sendau to Auswärtigen Amt, 15 April 1918, BL R901/81075 bl 133.
37 Hugo Stinnes to Helfferich, 4 May 1918, BL R704/52 bl. 132.
38 Mirbach to Reichskanzler, 6 May 1918 ‘Mit Bezug auf anderweitige Berichterstattung’, BL R901/81075 bl 227.
39 Hugo Stinnes to Helfferich 14 May 1918, BL R704/52 bl. 144.
40 Mirbach to Helferrich, 20.5.1918, ‘Möglichkeit des Warenaufkaufs in Rußland’, BL R901/81075 bl 212.
41 Pollitz Bericht, 28 May 1918, Moscow, BL R901/81076 bl 121.
42 ‘Niederschrift der Besprechung über Fragen der Wirtschaftspolitik in Gross-russland und der Ukraine am Dienstag, den 4. Juni 1918’, BL R3101/1168 bl. 135.
43 Helfferich Report, 5 June 1918, BL R704/52 bl. 153.
44 ‘Niederschrift über die Besprechung des Ständigen Ausschusses für den Geschäftsverkehr mit Rußland an Freitag, den 7. Juni 1918’, BL R901/81076 bl 124.
45 A.A. to Graf Mirbach, 27 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 35.
46 Verein Ostdeutscher Holzhändler und Holzindustrieller to Reichsamt des Innern, 12 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 112; Lt. Dettmann, Deutsche Ortskommandantur, Helsingfors, to Kriegsministerium, Abt A1, 16 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 294.
47 Deutsche Gesandtschaft, Haag, to Reichskanzler, 26 June 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 78.
48 Bussche to Staatssekretär des Reichswirtschaftsamt, 17 July 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 292, 368; Waldeck, Reichswirtschaftsamt, to AA, 23 July 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 368.
49 Arthur Stanley, President of the Board of Trade to Balfour, Foreign Secretary, 3 May 1918, TNA FO 800/205, 277.
50 ‘Resolution passed by the WAR TRADE BOARD June 6, 1918’, Yale, Gordon Auchincloss Papers, MS 580 Box 9 Folder 233.
51 Saul, 298–300.
52 ‘Resolution passed by the WAR TRADE BOARD June 6, 1918’, Yale, Gordon Auchincloss Papers, MS 580 Box 9 Folder 233.
53 Consul General Moscow (Summers) to Lansing, 30 March 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Vol. III, <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Russiav03/d151> [accessed 22 October 2019]; Francis to Lansing, 12 April 1918 <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Russiav03/d159> [accessed 22 October 2019]; Consul General in Irkutsk (Harris) to Lansing, 15 June 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Vol. III, <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Russiav03/d177> [accessed 22 October 2019].
54 A.A. Young, ‘Summary of Resources’ undated, likely summer 1918, Columbia, Mezes Papers MS#0872 Box 1.
55 ‘Commission to Aid the Russian People in Opposing German Domination’, Handwritten note – ‘before armistice’ – internal evidence suggests spring 1918, Yale, Gordon Auchincloss Papers, MS 580 Box 9 Folder 225.
56 Diplomatische Vertretung in Moskau, Wirtschaftliche Abteilung, to Reichskanzler, 19 July 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 314.
57 Minutes of Meeting of War Cabinet, 330 A, 24 January 1918, TNA CAB 23-13-38.
58 Balfour to Reading, 22 July 1918, TNA FO 800/205, 137.
59 ‘Appreciation of the Attached Western and General report No. 73’, 20 June 1918, TNA CAB 24/148/24.
60 Political Intelligence Department, ‘Memorandum on Recent German Pronouncements on Economic Policy’, 14 June 1918, TNA CAB 24/54/87.
61 Sir Eric Drummond, Memorandum, 31 May 1918, TNA FO 800/205, 290-5.
62 Katherine C. Epstein, ‘The Conundrum of American Power in the Age of World War I’, Modern American History, 2, no. 3 (2019), 345-65.
63 White, 45-78.
64 Ambassador in Russia (Francis) to Lansing, 2 February 1918; Lansing to Francis, 14 February 1918; Commercial Advisor of the British Embassy (Crawford), to Counselor of the Dept of State (Polk) 25 February 1918; Lansing to Francis, 19 April 1918; Lansing to Francis, 13 June 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Vol. III, <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments> [accessed 14 June 2018].
65 Lansing to Francis, 26 April 1918; Consul at Moscow (Poole) to Lansing, 16 July 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Vol. III, <https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments> [Accessed 15 October 2019]. See also Frank Lyon Polk (State Dept Counsellor) to Wilson, 7 June 1918, Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 48, 296; Jeanette E. Tuve, ‘Changing Directions in Russian-American Economic Relations, 1912–1917’, Slavic Review 31 (1972), 66-70; White, 17–34; McFadden, 58, 115, 118; Fogelsong.
66 Diplomatische Vertretung in Moskau, Wirtschaftliche Abteilung to Reichskanzler, 19 July 1918, BL R901/81077 bl 314.
67 Diplomatische Vertretung in Moskau, Wirtschaftliche Abteilung to Reichskanzler, 10 August 1918, BL R901/87031 bl 193; Diplomatische Vertretung in Moskau, Wirtschaftliche Abteilung to Reichskanzler, 5 August 1918, BL R901/87031 bl 205.
68 Paul Rohrbach, Deutschland unter den Weltvölker: Materialien zur auswärtigen Politik (Berlin: Buchverlag der ‘Hilfe’, 1903); Reichs-Marineamt, Die Seeinteressen des Deutschen Reiches (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1898); Friedrich Naumann, Neudeutsche Wirtschftspolitik (Berlin: Buchverlag der Hilfe, 1906); Arthur Dix, Deutschland auf den Hochstrassen des Weltwirtschaftsverkehrs (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1901). See also Sönke Neitzel. Weltmacht oder Untergang; Die Weltreichslehre im Zeitalter des Imperialismus (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schönigh, 2000); Manfred Berg, Gustav Stresemann und die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika; Weltwirtschaftliche Verflechtung und Revisionspolitik, 1907–1929 (Baden Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1990).
69 J.J. Ruedorffer, Grundzüge der Weltpolitik in der Gegenwart (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915), 194-5.
70 142. Sitzung des Reichstages, 18 March 1918, BL R2/1703, 4430. Emphasis in original.
71 Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman, ‘Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion’, International Security 44, (2019), 42-79.
72 ‘Amerikanische Handelspläne in Russland’, BL R3101/908 bl 247–9. The Economics Office was created in late 1917, and thus, though undated, the report clearly was written during the winter of 1917–18.
73 Tooze, The Deluge, 6-11.
74 Norman Angell, The Great Illusion. A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage (New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913), 28-45.
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Notes on contributors
David Hamlin
David Hamlin is Professor of History at Fordham University, where he teaches German and Modern European history. He is the author of Germany’s Empire in the East (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Work and Play (University of Michigan Press, 2007).