The Paris Economy Pact was an international economic agreement reached at the Paris Economic Conference, held from 14 June 1916 in Paris. The meeting, held at the height of World War I, included representatives of the Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. The pact was intended to isolate the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in W ...

: the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, the

Austrian-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...

, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

and the

Kingdom of Bulgaria The Tsardom of Bulgaria ( bg, Царство България, translit=Tsarstvo Balgariya), also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom ( bg, Трето Българско Царство, translit=Treto Balgarsko Tsarstvo, links=no), someti ...

. The Allied Powers envisioned isolating them through trade sanctions after the war. A standing body, the Comité permanent international d'action économique, based in Paris, was established to monitor the implementation of the pact. The pact was of great concern to the American government, led by President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

, which saw the continued fragmentation of Europe to be a risk for continued conflict. US Secretary of State

Robert Lansing Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wi ...

asked the staff of the US embassy in Paris to monitor the proceedings (the United States had not yet entered the war and was not one of the Allies). The issue of central concern to the United States was that the pact included schemes for the subsidization and the government ownership of manufacturing enterprises and the division of European markets for the pact participants. The outcome of the Economic Conference foreshadowed the conflict between the United States and the Allies during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.Elizabeth Glaser, ''The Making of the Economic Peace'' in The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years, 1998, p. 374.
/ref> The past concern of the US government with the pact remains fossilized in the

US Code In the law of the United States, the Code of Laws of the United States of America (variously abbreviated to Code of Laws of the United States, United States Code, U.S. Code, U.S.C., or USC) is the official compilation and codification of the ...

, in Title 19, Section 1332(c), which gives the

United States International Trade Commission The United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) is an agency of the United States federal government that advises the legislative and executive branches on matters of trade. It is an independent, bipartisan entity that analyze ...

the "power to investigate the Paris Economy Pact and similar organizations and arrangements in Europe."

References

External links

* * {{cite web, url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archives-patrimoine_3512/fonds-collections_5143/archives-affaires-etrangeres_11591/administration-centrale_11601/affaires-economiques-commerciales_11612/blocus_13329/blocus_29435.html , title=French Diplomatic History Website , access-date=5 June 2009 , url-status=unfit , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406101105/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archives-patrimoine_3512/fonds-collections_5143/archives-affaires-etrangeres_11591/administration-centrale_11601/affaires-economiques-commerciales_11612/blocus_13329/blocus_29435.html , archive-date=6 April 2012 Aftermath of World War I Treaty of Versailles World War I treaties Treaties concluded in 1916 Treaties entered into force in 1916 Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922) Treaties of the French Third Republic Treaties of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) Treaties of the Russian Empire Commercial treaties

See also

References

External links