Elder Dempster and the Shipping Trade of Nigeria during the First World War

1992 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayodeji Olukoju
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Shipping Company ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
First World

Shipping, a vital element of maritime trade, has not hitherto received adequate attention in studies on Nigerian colonial economic history. This article therefore fills a gap in the literature by studying aspects of the shipping trade during the First World War, when shipping was indispensable for maintaining economic links between Britain and her colonies. Shipping in Nigeria revolved around the practices of the Elder Dempster Shipping Company, which enjoyed an undisputed monopoly of the trade throughout the war, and the reactions of the colonial government and private shippers to them.Scarcity of tonnage and higher freights were the chief features of shipping during the war. The allocation of shipping space, however, ranged the colonial government, the shipping company and the Combine (that is, big European) firms against non-Combine shippers. While Elder Dempster's allocation formula suited the government and the Combine firms, it was considered inequitable by other shippers. This arrangement reflected the community of interests between the colonial state and Big Business vis-à-vis smaller traders.The interests of the government and Elder Dempster were, however, incompatible on the question of ocean freights. Thus, high freights which boosted the firm's turnover were detrimental to the economic interests of the colonial state. The company's monopoly and the non-intervention of the Imperial government enabled it to have its way. Consequently, despite losses at sea, requisition by the Imperial government and rising running costs, Elder Dempster conducted a profitable business during the war. In achieving this, it also served the Imperial interest by effectively linking Nigeria with the metropolis.On the whole, wartime shipping conditions, particularly Elder Dempster's practical monopoly, were a departure from pre-war trends. There was a gradual return to normality in the early 1920s but the firm remained pre-eminent in the West African shipping trade.

scholarly journals Socio-economic situation in Vienna during the First World War 1916–1918.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-182
Author(s):  
Rashid A. Nadirov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Status ◽  
First World War ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Food Crisis ◽  
World War ◽  
The People ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Government ◽  
First World

This article addresses the problem of socio-economic status of the Austro-Hungarian capital Vienna in the second period of the First World War - 1916-1918. Much attention is paid to the consequences of the war: the food crisis, the deficit, the rise in prices for basic necessities, speculation, protests, etc. It shows the transformation of the mood of the Viennese society in the conditions of the growing economic crisis. The food issue directly affected the quality of life of the residents of the capital, who were in difficult wartime conditions, and largely influenced their attitude to the current government. In this study, the task was to analyze the relationship between the government and the people and to find out why the people of Vienna, who had initially been patriotic and united around the monarchy, had joined the opposition by 1916. The author concludes that the food crisis, against the backdrop of the inaction of the government, which has used only the practice of prohibitions and restrictions on the civilian population, has become a key factor in exacerbating protests and leading to the overthrow of the political regime and the collapse of the monarchy.

scholarly journals MOSCOW «ODYSSEY» OF A SERBIAN COLONEL. RUSSIAN-SERBIAN MILITARY-ECONOMIC COOPERATION ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-99
Author(s):  
Ya.V. Vishnjakov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Political Rivalry ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
Danube Region ◽  
Economic Ties ◽  
First World

The article is devoted to the little-studied issue of the peculiarities of Russian-Serbian economic ties. The author argues that the Russian-Austrian relations in the Balkan region were not only in the nature of political rivalry, but were associated with the general economic interests of Russia in the Danube region.

From Soldier to Peasant? The Land Settlement Scheme in East Sussex, 1919—1939

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-462
Author(s):  
Carol A. Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Land Settlement ◽  
City Life ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Demobilized Soldiers ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
First World

The English rural myth suggested that being close to the rhythms of nature, as opposed to being immersed in the irritations and pollution of city life, would create a settled, healthy, content, and loyal population. By the inter-war period the rural myth depicted an appealing image of self-sufficient, independent peasants living an uncomplicated lifestyle based on agricultural pursuits. In the aftermath of the First World War this picture of a golden countryside was popular and admired by social reformers, members of the government, and the general public. The coalition government incorporated this myth into its post-war social legislation and created in 1919 a land settlement scheme for newly demobilized soldiers aimed at establishing a new base of smallholding agricultural workers to populate the countryside. The myth may have been appealing, but it turned out to be economically not self-sustaining and politically it got little more than lip service. A myth cannot be attained through mere legislation. This article examines the land settlement scheme in East Sussex during the inter-war period and argues that even in an area seemingly well-suited to such a program, the scheme was neither practical nor successful in its attempt to put the myth into practice.

State Purchase of the Liquor Trade in the First World War

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Turner
Keyword(s):  
State Intervention ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Mythology ◽  
First World

In 1915 and again in 1917 the British government almost decided to buy out the whole of the licensed liquor trade in the United Kingdom. An examination of the circumstances in which this ambitious proposal was contemplated poses serious questions of interpretation for the historian of the first World War. The episode figures in the historiography of temperance as a missed opportunity to use the power of government to solve a longstanding social problem; this, however, was a minor part of the story. In 1915 state purchase was to have helped to reduce industrial absenteeism, and thus to increase munitions production. In 1917 it was to have conserved foodstuffs and saved shipping during the submarine crisis. It can thus be seen as yet another manifestation of ‘war socialism’: but it has two distinctive characteristics. First, the government had little understanding of the economic and social phenomena which it sought to control by assuming ownership of the liquor trade, though much political effort was put into the manoeuvre. Second, the private interests concerned were quite eager, partly because of pre-war conditions, to be expropriated for their own good as much as for the nation's benefit. It is an unexceptionable part of conventional wisdom that the first World War, like the second, was a major catalyst of change, and especially of state intervention in society. The history of state purchase shows how tenuous and haphazard the causal connexion between war and social change could be. The demands of war were (almost) translated into major state intervention, but the process was mediated by the political mythology of drink, by the operation in the political system of a powerful business pressure group, and by the shifting priorities of governments which subordinated all policy to the need to guide a war economy to victory.

scholarly journals The Origin of the Polish National Loan Fund and Its Operation on the Polish Lands

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3 ENGLISH ONLINE VERSION) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Loan Fund ◽  
Monetary Unit ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
First World

The idea of establishing the Bank of Poland as the central bank of the Second Polish Republic and introducing a new currency appeared shortly after Poland regained its independence. At the beginning of 1919, in the economic circles it was believed that one of the initial steps taken by the government would be to establish a new issuing bank in place of the Polish National Loan Fund, which had appeared on the Polish territory in an emergency situation—during the First World War, and which, contrary to the original (both German and Polish) plans survived for 7 years and was transformed after the war into the first bank of issue in the now independent Polish State. The Polish National Loan Fund established by the Germans as an issuing institution by way of the ordinance of December 9, 1916 establishing the Polnische Landes Darlehnskasse was granted the privilege of issuing a new currency, that is a new monetary unit under the name marka polska. The German authorities were guided by various objectives when creating the new issuing institution—first of all, the aim was to limit the area of circulation of the German mark and to create an instrument that would draw in the occupied area of the Polish territory to finance the war, contrary to the assurances of the occupying authorities that the PKKP would be an institution supporting the economy and banking system of the country—the Kingdom of Poland, whose creation was envisaged after the end of World War I.

scholarly journals Organization of Charity and Philanthropy in Selenginsky District of the Trans-Baikal Region During the First World War: Interaction Between the Government and the Public

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Sevostyanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Baikal Region ◽  
Social Care ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Charitable Activities ◽  
First World

The article considers the implementation of the policy of charity of families of mobilized in Selenga county; forms and rates of organization of urban and rural guardianship; creation, basic principles and forms of charitable activities of the Selenga County Commission of the regional Zabaikalsky Department of the Committee of Elizaveta Fyodorovna. The total number of charitable and Trustee associations was revealed. The main trends of social care after February 1917 are defined.

scholarly journals CONTRIBUTION OF ZAVOLZHSKY ORPHANAGE № 2 IN ELIMINATING HOMELESSNESS IN THE CHUVASH ASSR

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-72
Author(s):  
Inna Yu. Semenova
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Evil ◽  
Separate Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
First World

In post-revolutionary Russia, the scale of child homelessness and adolescent neglect, which resulted from October 1917, the events of the First World War and the Civil War, devastation of the national economy, unemployment, the mass spread of social diseases and other social upheavals, caused serious concern to the Government of the country. A number of legislative acts are adopted that create a legal and organizational basis for combating the social evil of homelessness (creation of children’s militia, children’s social inspections, commissions on juvenile affairs, labor communes and camps, orphanages, remand houses, as well as the emergence of public organizations). A separate area of the authorities’ work in this direction is massive organization of child care and foster care institutions throughout the country; in a number of national regions, including the Chuvash ASSR, the number of orphanages and children’s towns partially solved the problem of homelessness growth, but did not eliminate it. The conducted research reveals the contribution of Zavolzhsky House № 2 under the Ministry of Education of the Chuvash ASSR in solving the problems of combating, preventing and eliminating the social evil of homelessness in the Chuvash Region. Timely measures for organizing the life of orphans and semi-orphans made it possible to consider the Chuvash ASSR a region that successfully coped with the state task of eliminating homelessness in the Soviet Russia.

The Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Enosis politics and the British authorities during the First World War

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153
Author(s):  
Anastasia Yiangou
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
Great War ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

This article examines relations between the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the British colonial government during the First World War. I argue that the Great War constituted the first turning point in Church-State relations during colonial rule in Cyprus which, following other developments, finally collapsed during the 1950s. I discuss how the dynamic of the Enosis movement for the union of Cyprus with Greece was bolstered during the Great War. This in turn, the article will show, had significant repercussions on the attitudes of the Orthodox Church and the British authorities, transformed their relationship and opened the way for future developments.

“State”, “public” and “private” in the practice of financial support of migrants during the First World War

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-209
Author(s):  
Elena V. Nikolaeva
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Government Aid ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World

We address one of the episodes of the First World War revealing the problem of financial support of the residents of frontline territories who found themselves in the inner governorates of the Russian Empire due to their voluntary flight. The refugee wave was heterogeneous, it included different categories of migrants, which led to the fact that the government aid was often distributed in an uneven manner. It caused the desire on the part of some refugees to derive maxi-mum value from the grants provided under equal conditions established by law. Additional oppor-tunities for such actions were created by a large number of organizations that provided assistance to people who had left their homes and an overlap of their functions. It resulted in the emergence of numerous conflicts and the search for compromises in the context of uneven state support, which in its turn generated discontent and disbelief in the justice of the existing measures.

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