THE PROFITS OF WAR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3809, 16 September 1936, Page 6

THE PROFITS OF WAR

In ten years of war, Caesar’s fortune was increased by more than 3000 talents, approximately £1,000,000 in our money, says “Le Mois,” Paris. Towards the end of his life William the Conqueror disposed of an income of 300,000 English pounds annually arising from taxations of all kinds and as the product of 1432 landed properties which he had deserved for his own personal use throughout his country. When the feudal system of war profiteering came to an end, the conquistadors pillaged America and the privateers, armed with letters and royal privileges pursued their piracy on all the seas of the globe. After his return to Fontainebleu in 1870, Napoleon distributed 12,000,000 francs to his soldiers, 6,000,000 to his officers, and 11,000,000 to the generals. The marshals obtained incomes which amounted to between 172,000 and 410,000 francs. For his share, Wellington

received £500,000 for his successes in Spain, besides an honorary gift of £200,000 after Waterloo. After the war of 1870 William the First distributed 15,000,000 of gold marks among 27 generals. Bismarck received as his endowment the Saxon forest, a property of some 16,000 acres in Holstein with the castle of Friedricksruh, which represented a total value of several million marks.

And after the Great War, in Great Britain gifts in specie were accompanied by titles of nobility of various degrees.

Financiers, arms manufacturers, contractors and speculators came in for their share, too. In his list of financiers of this category, R. Lewisohn, the author of “War Profits Throughout the Ages,” inscribes: the Medicis, Jacques Coeur, Jakob Fugger, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the Rothschilds, Ouvrard, Laffitte, Fould, Pereirre, Bleiehroder, Morgan. As far as the contractors are concerned the total of benefices derived from war by special individuals may be estimated, both in belligerent

and neutral nations as 150 billions of gold francs. Historic evolution shows that war profits change in form. Military benefices no longer exist save in the form of endowments in a few countries, for the State more and more tends to become its own financier. In the glorious days of campaigning and pillaging, one profited by waging his own wars. But to-day it is from the wars fought by others. Julius Caesar has given way to the manufacturer of boxes for canned goods.