World War I compelled Britain and Italy to subordinate private profit to political need

Evidence

As will be discussed in chapter 1, British and Italian states were compelled to take a major role as producers: key war industries were put under their control. Th is included not just munitions, but also strategic energy and transport sectors like coal, shipping, and railways. In this respect, the once fi rm boundary between private property and public property, between entrepreneurs and bureaucrats, lost its semblance of immovability. Th rough war collectivism, states broke the glass on the sanctity of the private organizations of production. For the fi rst time, these states also subordinated the priority of private economic profi t to that of political need. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 107

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s foundational austerity-as-class-weapon literature, including how war collectivism set the stage for the interwar austerity backlash Mattei maps later. — connects to: WWI forced Britain and Italy to abandon free-market doctrine for state intervention — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 214; World War I turned British and Italian states into their economies’ chief producers — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 215; The Great War triggered extensive nationalization in Britain and Italy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 188 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The Great War triggered extensive nationalization in Britain and Italy #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 188
• Private profit-seeking threatened Britain’s wartime shipping capacity. #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 167
• World War I transformed the Italian state into the central planner of the economy #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 131
• Britain’s wartime nationalizations were unprecedented and imitated by Italy #expands (0.80)