Harper's Pictorial Library of the World War, Volume XII : $b The Great Results of the War
History
Harper's Pictorial Library of the World War, Volume XII : $b The Great Results of the War
League of Nations; Treaty of Versailles (1919 June 28); World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects; World War, 1914-1918 -- Finance
In all the belligerent countries it naturally took some time for them to
get into their stride. This is especially true of Great Britain. The
figures of the average daily expenditures, as given by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, amounted to almost $10,000,000 in the opening months of
the war and reached a maximum of almost $36,000,000 by 1918. These
figures, however, are not exact because they include all of the
expenditures. The real war expenditures may be arrived at by deducting
in each case the amount of the expenditures in the last year of peace,
ending March 31, 1914. Making these corrections, it appears that the
average daily war expenditures in England rose from about $9,500,000
during the first eight months of the war to about $33,500,000 in 1918,
then slowly receding in 1919. In France the average daily expenditures
were naturally somewhat less, rising from about $8,500,000 during the
first three months of the war to over $21,000,000 during 1917, the last
full year of the war. In Germany the daily expenses were approximately
the same as in Great Britain, rising from about $13,000,000 in the first
nine months of the war to $34,500,000 during the last six months of
1918. In the case of both Germany and France, it is not known whether
the figures comprise the total expenditures or only the pure war
expenditures. In the former event the daily expenditures of Germany
would be a little less than those of Great Britain; in the latter, they
would be a little more. In Italy and Austria-Hungary the daily
expenditures were naturally smaller, amounting at the maximum to about
$10,500,000 and $20,000,000 respectively. In Russia the daily
expenditures rose in 1916 to about $20,000,000 and in 1917, just prior
to the October revolution, nominally to $47,000,000. But, owing to the
great depreciation of the ruble, the actual expenditures were much less.
OUR WAR EXPENSES MONTH BY MONTH
When the United States entered the war the scale of its operations
became so stupendous that its daily war expenditures soon far exceeded
those of any other belligerent. In the second month of the war the
average daily expenditures for pure war purposes were $15,000,000 and
little over a year later they had risen to almost $50,000,000. By the
end of 1918, the daily average war expenditures reached the staggering
figure of $64,500,000.
[Illustration: The Economic Conference in Paris
Mr. Bonar Law talking with M. Clementel (Minister of Commerce) and M.
Doumergue (Colonies) in the garden of the foreign ministry.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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