Page - 419 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 419 of the available horses were sent to the newly deployed howitzer batteries. The use of engine power certainly increased, but the transport situation improved only gradually. In the small arms sector, the shortfalls still evident at the beginning of 1915 could be offset with the help of captured Russian weapons. On the other side, Russia could equip only half its troops with rifles made in its own factories since the losses in spring and summer far exceeded the capacity of Russian weapons factories. The Russian High Command had already asked Japan in 1914 whether the Japanese might be inclined to sell Russian rifles that they had captured during the Russo-Japanese War. But Japan replied regretfully that the rifles had already been destroyed.993 The Allies were also not in a position to supply sufficient quantities. Russia could ultimately only help itself by buying from Italy the latter’s old rifle models, including the appropriate ammuni- tion.994 By October 1915, by contrast, the production of rifles in Austria-Hungary rose to 100,000 per month. This was still not enough, but the shortfall could be met with the help of armouries close to the front, which carried out the necessary repairs, and captured weapons. In 1915, initial considerations were made for the standardisation of the German and the Austro-Hungarian weapons factories. On both sides, however, there was little interest in abandoning the production of their own models and types in favour of those of their ally. The standardisation and control measures therefore remained limited for the time being to the respective empires. In the case of Austria-Hungary, the system of ‘central offices’ was gradually expanded, however. Ultimately, the war economy was controlled with the help of 91 central offices,995 of which 20 were active in the area of agriculture and the food industry, 15 in the textiles industry, eight in the area of paper and printing, 13 in the chemical, oils and fats industry, six for skins and leather, 13 in the metal, tool, asbestos and petroleum industry, four for stone and earth, three for wood, seven in the area of trade and transport, one that served the foreign currency control and one that was designed to represent the interests of the civilian population as a consumer advice centre. Last but not least, in spite of several initial problems, a standardisation of the German and Austro-Hungarian efforts was achieved that far exceeded the existing cooperation in the political arena. However, Austria-Hungary very soon became heavily dependent on its ally in this area, too. Since the import and export bans that came into force at the beginning of the war were issued without consideration for the necessary cooperation of the Central Powers in the economic area, the conclusion of a whole series of treaties and above all continual negotiations were necessary in order to overcome the barriers that had been created. Following the agreement of September 1914, however, at least the biggest obstacle to bilateral trade between the Central Powers had become redundant. The restrictive provisions could not simply be suspended, since Austria-Hungary for its part was not a uniform economic body and consideration repeatedly had to be taken of the sometimes