Page - 209 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The War Economy Dominates Everyday Life 209 After the announcement of the enabling decree, the Imperial-Royal Ministry of Trade issued provisions on flour reserves being made to go further. Bread grain had to be mixed with cheaper types of grain such as barley, maize or spelt. Already in November attempts were made to combat the impending shortage by issuing further provisions regarding eking out reserves and the fineness of foodstuffs, but it was already clear that the winter would be severe. Symptoms of the crisis were also visible in trade, commerce and industry. However, something very different sounded the alarm bells, since now the war economy was beginning to take effect. Industries vital to the war could no longer process their orders. Consortiums that had so far made deliveries for the army had to pass orders on, since they were soon overworked. There were agents who secured orders and then attempted, after raking in a juicy commission, to place these orders with firms that still had the capacity to process them. Soon there was a shortage of raw materials. In order to combat this, the military authorities intervened using the Law on War Contributions and confiscated everything that could be processed by the armaments industry and could otherwise no longer be obtained. The result was the forced procurement of domestic raw materials. Afterwards, it was realised that it would have been better to take even more radical measures instead of introducing the control measures hesitantly, cautiously and step- by-step. From the first day of the war onwards, systematic controls should have com- menced.495 But in contrast to the safeguarding, for example, of the railway tracks and the postal traffic, which had been planned in detail and only had to be carried out, little forethought had gone into the economic sector and there was no concrete notion or even a vague idea of what kind of deep fissures could be brought by a major war. Dur- ing peacetime, the Army Administration had concluded treaties with enterprises and consortiums, which secured the delivery of material goods to the treasury. The prices that were paid were made up of fixed wage and profit quotas and variable raw materials prices. Now, in war, when the treasury had urgent needs, it was prepared to pay hugely inflated prices. In this case again, however, the Habsburg Monarchy was by no means an exception. In the German Empire, very similar measures had been taken, but they had subse- quently been much more consistently applied and regimented. In Great Britain, the armaments industry and numerous other industrial companies were placed under the control of government departments. Russia attempted to establish a central economic authority. Germany and France centralised and supervised. The difference, however, was that in the countries mentioned, even in the German Empire, civilian authorities were responsible for these control and surveillance measures, whereas in Austria-Hungary it was military control that predominated by far. Yet it was not the case that the mil- itary authorities seized the surveillance functions themselves ; instead, they had these functions literally forced on them above all by Prime Minister Count Stürgkh but also