Merchants of death was an
epithet used in the U.S. in the 1930s to attack industries and banks that had supplied and funded
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(then called the Great War).
Origin
The term originated in 1932 as the title of an article about an arms dealer named
Basil Zaharoff: "Zaharoff, Merchant of Death". It was then borrowed for the title of the book ''Merchants of Death'' (1934), an
exposé by
H. C. Engelbrecht
Helmuth Carol Engelbrecht (January 15, 1895 – October 8, 1939) was an American writer.
Biography
Engelbrecht studied at the University of Chicago before completing his doctorate on Johann Gottlieb Fichte at Columbia University in 1932.
In ...
and
F. C. Hanighen
Frank Cleary Hanighen (1899 – January 10, 1964) was an American journalist.Martin H. Folly, Niall A. Palmer, ''Historical dictionary of US diplomacy from World War I through World War II'', Scarecrow Press, 2010 p. 14/ref>
Biography
Frank Ha ...
.
[
]
United States
The term was popular in antiwar circles of both the left and the right, and was used extensively regarding the Senate hearings in 1936 by the
Nye Committee
The Nye Committee, officially known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, was a United States Senate committee (April 12, 1934 – February 24, 1936), chaired by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye (R-ND). The committee investig ...
. The Senate hearing examined how much influence the manufacturers of armaments had in the American decision to enter World War I. Ninety-three hearings were held, over 200 witnesses were called, and little hard evidence of a conspiracy was found. The Nye Committee came to an end when Chairman Nye accused President Woodrow Wilson of withholding information from Congress when he chose to enter World War I. The failure of the committee to find a conspiracy did not change public prejudice against the manufactures of armaments, thus the popular name "merchants of death".
Nye Report findings
Extraordinary arms sales produce fear, hostility, greater munitions orders, economic strain and collapse or war. Munitions companies engaged in bribery of foreign governmental officials to secure business. Profits flowed from German orders for aviation materiel. Munitions companies evaded the embargo of arms to China. The committee also found price-fixing agreements and profit-sharing arrangements.
Great Britain
Similar allegations in Great Britain resulted in a major government
inquiry in 1935–1936.
[David G. Anderson, “British Rearmament and the ‘Merchants of Death’: The 1935-36 Royal Commission on the Manufacture of and Trade in Armaments.” ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 29#1 (1994), pp. 5–37]
online
Book topics
''Merchants of Death'' (1934) covers the history of the
Arms industry
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry classification, industry which manufacturing, manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commerce, commercial Private industry, industry involved ...
. Featured companies include
DuPont,
Colt
Colt(s) or COLT may refer to:
*Colt (horse), an intact (uncastrated) male horse under four years of age
People
* Colt (given name)
*Colt (surname)
Places
*Colt, Arkansas, United States
*Colt, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, United States ...
,
Remington
Remington may refer to:
Organizations
* Remington Arms, American firearms manufacturer
* Remington Rand, American computer manufacturer
* Remington Products, American manufacturer of shavers and haircare products
* Remington College, American c ...
,
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...
,
Schneider-Creusot
Schneider et Cie, also known as Schneider-Creusot for its birthplace in the French town of Le Creusot, was a historic French iron and steel-mill company which became a major arms manufacturer. In the 1960s, it was taken over by the Belgian Empain ...
,
Krupp, and
Škoda Works
The Škoda Works ( cs, Škodovy závody, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century, founded by Czech engineer Emil Škoda in 1859 in Plzeň, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire. It is the predece ...
. Individuals include
Hiram Maxim
Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (5 February 1840 – 24 November 1916) was an American- British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hair-curl ...
and
Basil Zaharoff. Arms profits before and during World War I are compared.
:159 The growth of Japanese armaments is covered.
See also
*
H. C. Engelbrecht
Helmuth Carol Engelbrecht (January 15, 1895 – October 8, 1939) was an American writer.
Biography
Engelbrecht studied at the University of Chicago before completing his doctorate on Johann Gottlieb Fichte at Columbia University in 1932.
In ...
*
F. C. Hanighen
Frank Cleary Hanighen (1899 – January 10, 1964) was an American journalist.Martin H. Folly, Niall A. Palmer, ''Historical dictionary of US diplomacy from World War I through World War II'', Scarecrow Press, 2010 p. 14/ref>
Biography
Frank Ha ...
*
Nye Committee
The Nye Committee, officially known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, was a United States Senate committee (April 12, 1934 – February 24, 1936), chaired by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye (R-ND). The committee investig ...
*
Basil Zaharoff
*
Causes of World War I
The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. World War I began in the Balkans on July 28, 1914, and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil ...
*
Neutrality Acts of the 1930s
The Neutrality Acts were a series of acts passed by the US Congress in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 in response to the growing threats and wars that led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in ...
*
Business Plot
The Business Plot (also called the Wall Street Putsch and The White House Putsch) was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933, in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as di ...
*
Military-digital complex
*
Viktor Bout
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (; russian: link=no, Виктор Анатольевич Бут; born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle a ...
References
Further reading
* Anderson, David G. “British Rearmament and the ‘Merchants of Death’: The 1935-36 Royal Commission on the Manufacture of and Trade in Armaments.” ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 29#1 (1994), pp. 5–37
online
*
*
* Coulter, Matthew Ware. ''The Senate Munitions Inquiry of the 1930s: Beyond the Merchants of Death'' (Greenwood, 1997).
* Engelbrecht, H. C., and F.C. Hanighen. ''Merchants of Death'' (Dodd, Mead, 1934
online
* Tooley, T. Hunt. " Merchants Of Death Revisited: Armaments, Bankers, and the First World War." ''Journal of Libertarian Studies,'' 19#1 (2005) pp. 37–78
online* Vergne, Jean-Philippe. "Stigmatized categories and public disapproval of organizations: A mixed-methods study of the global arms industry, 1996–2007." ''Academy of Management Journal'' 55.5 (2012): 1027-1052
online* Wiltz, John E. ''In Search of Peace: the Senate munitions inquiry, 1934-36'' (1963), detailed history of Nye Committe
online
*
Anti-war movement
Military–industrial complex
United States in World War I
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