Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War

Nicholas A. Lambert

*Winner of the 2013 Norman B. Tomlinson Prize<br /><br />Before the First World War, the British Admiralty conceived a plan to win rapid victory in the event of war with Germany--economic warfare on an unprecedented scale. This strategy called for the state to exploit Britain's effective monopolies in banking, communications, and shipping--the essential infrastructure underpinning global trade--to create a controlled implosion of the world economic system.