Private profit-seeking by shipowners nearly collapsed Britain’s wartime supply

Evidence

Once the war broke out, the contrast between public needs and private interest plainly surfaced: it was highly profi table to sell British ships to foreigners, and the British nation lost enormous tonnage (see Chiozza Money 1920, 73). By February 1917, private shipowners sold ships abroad at such a rate that “the fate of Britain literally hung in the balance” (Hurwitz 1949, 194). Th ere were not even suffi cient ships to import the bare necessities of a nation at war. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 125

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the failure of laissez-faire in wartime, foundational to the later argument that capitalism needed state coercion — parallels Milgrom’s analysis of when markets need institutions. — connects to: Private profit-seeking threatened Britain’s wartime shipping capacity. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 167; World War I compelled Britain and Italy to subordinate private profit to political need — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 107; Wartime state intervention forced private property to bow to national-interest priorities — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 149 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Private profit-seeking threatened Britain’s wartime shipping capacity. #corroborates (0.96) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 167
• World War I compelled Britain and Italy to subordinate private profit to political need #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 107
• Market logic failed to meet wartime production needs. #corroborates (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 166
• Wartime state intervention forced private property to bow to national-interest priorities #responds-to (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 149