World War I turned British and Italian states into their economies’ chief producers

Evidence

Governments became their countries’ main producers, both through the seizure of the means of production and the management of private industries— fi xing output and prices while advancing capital and fostering technological innovation. Th e British and Italian governments dictated the crops that were to be grown, managed uncultivated land, fi xed consumption prices, and determined distribution. Th ey also entered the domestic and international markets as the main buyer of foodstuff s, raw materials, and commodities. Th ese governments gained vast power to requisition land and goods while also setting limits on private profi ts. In other words, social production became political. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 215

Categorization

• XREF: Establishes the wartime command-economy baseline from which postwar austerity in Mattei’s story departs; connects to later chapters on the turn from wartime to peacetime economic control. — 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 transformed the Italian state into the central planner of the economy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 131; World War I compelled Britain and Italy to subordinate private profit to political need — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 107 (+6 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the core mechanism opening Mattei’s book: war politicized social production, making state power over capital accumulation visible and contestable.

Broader Connections

• World War I transformed the Italian state into the central planner of the economy #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 131
• World War I states directly seized and ran vast industrial production #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 135
• World War I compelled Britain and Italy to subordinate private profit to political need #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 107
• The Great War triggered extensive nationalization in Britain and Italy #exemplifies (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 188
• Britain’s wartime nationalizations were unprecedented and imitated by Italy #corroborates (0.75)
• Italy entered the war far weaker industrially than Britain #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 119