The First World War, a significant chapter in modern history, is approached from the perspective of New Institutional Economics, an emerging and promising branch of Economic Science.
Specifically, the role of war and technology in the creation of modern economic institutions is examined. For the first time, the organization of production in wartime is described in such detail, which allowed them to transform their economic base and convert it into military power, explaining why the First World War was so devastating.
The concept of total war would not have been possible without the existence of the institutional framework that placed such a large part of the economy at the service of military operations.
Supported by impressive military material from archival sources that appear for the first time in this book, the author argues that the economic relationships had radically changed during the First World War, as a result of the institutional developments that preceded it, influencing the institutional, economic, and of course political developments that followed.
