The Last Chance Of Freedom: Economic Causes Of War

Friday, August 12, 2022

In the 18th century, on the eve of modern capitalism, the nature of war was very different from what it had been in the age of barbarism
Wars were fought with comparatively small armies of professional soldiers, mostly made up of mercenaries
The objective of warfare was to determine which dynasty should rule a country or province
Under a system of private ownership of the means of production and free enterprise, with the only function of government being to protect individuals against violent or fraudulent attacks on their lives, health, or property, it is immaterial for the citizens of any nation where the frontiers of their country are drawn

The eminent British pacifist, Sir Norman Angell, repeats again and again that the individual citizen cannot derive any profit from the conquest of a province by his own nation.
No German citizen, says Sir Norman, profited through his nation's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
Hence, the old liberals concluded, there would be no more wars under a system of economic laissez faire and popular government.

Germany is poor in natural resources.
Import huge quantities of raw materials and foodstuffs, and must pay for these badly needed imports by exporting manufactures, most of which are produced out of those imported raw materials
Under free enterprise, Germany brilliantly adjusted itself to this circumstance, becoming one of the world's most prosperous nations
But most of the German ideologists and political writers, the government-appointed professors and the socialist party leaders, as well as the government bureaucrats, did not like the free-market system
They wanted to substitute government management of business for free enterprise
The pursuit of a program of government control of business must result in a rejection of the international division of labor
A socialist commonwealth must aim at autarky
This is where aggressive nationalism-once referred to as Pan-Germanism, and today called National Socialism-comes into the picture

Europe-excluding Russia-has a population of 400 million people, more than three times the population of the continental United States
However, Europe does not produce cotton, rubber, copra, coffee, tea, jute, and many essential metals.
In 1937, Europe produced only fifty-six million barrels of crude petroleum, as compared with the US production of 1,279 million barrels
If the Europeans want to live they must cling to the well-tried methods of free enterprise. The alternative is war and conquest.

The demand of the Nazi and Fascist aggressors for a new and fair distribution of natural resources around the globe
In a world of free enterprise, a man who wants to drink coffee and is not himself a coffee planter must pay for it.
Since the citizens of Colombia or Brazil are not enthusiastic about becoming slaves of either the German Nazis or the Italian Fascists, this means war.

In our age, the great wars have been the outcome of a specific economic mentality
Wars have been motivated by the desire to make the aggressors rich at the expense of the defeated
The policy of aggression and conquest is self-defeating
Under the conditions of modern industrialism, there cannot be any question of a social system such as the Nazis plan under the name of a "New Order"
Slavery is not a method for industrial societies
To abolish war, we must remove the causes of war

The Last Chance Of Freedom