Logistics in Britain during WWI: the case of GKN and the Ministry of Munitions

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380446
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: Suge Ikki 同志社大学, 経済学部, 教授 (70276400)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 第一次世界大戦 / イギリス / 軍需省 / 製鉄会社 / 鉄鋼商 / ロジスティクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study considers how the distribution of steel, an important strategic material, was controlled in Britain during WWI, through case studies of relation between the Ministry of Munitions, GKN - a representative of Welsh steelmakers- and W. C. M. James - an iron merchant in industrial Midlands, and revises the nature of the total war systems. This study depicts the process in which the Ministry of Munitions developed centrally a system for gathering informatoin in respect of production and distribution of steel, and, at the same time, what played the central role in co-ordinating imbalance of demand and supply of steel products was the private business practices among steelmakers and steel merchants. Thus, this study stresses the continuity between the pre-war peace time and the war time during the WWI.

Free Research Field

イギリス経済史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでの総力戦体制の研究には、一般的に言って、2つの特徴がある。第1に、先行研究はおもに政府機関の活動に焦点をあわせ、第2に、戦時の総力戦体制を新規でそれまでの政治経済体制に対して異質なものとして描いてきた。この研究は、戦時の鉄鋼流通を製鉄会社と鉄鋼商という民間の活動に注目して検討し、また軍需省の活動も製鉄会社の視点から見直した。その結果として、戦時の鉄鋼流通が製鉄会社や鉄鋼商などの戦前からの商慣行に大きく依存し、戦前の平時と総力戦体制が連続する性格をもつことを明らかにした。