Problems of Credit Financing Arms Supplies to Russia from Japan during World War I

Abstract

The relevance of the topic is related to the fact that currently, within the conditions of a special military operation in Ukraine, the problem of mobilizing the economy to meet the military needs is becoming of key importance. At the same time, close study of the history of lending for military and technical cooperation between Russia and other countries and the practices of their legal registration will help avoid a number of mistakes made during the First World War by the Russian authorities when managing the economy in a military conflict. Russian researchers have studied in sufficient detail various aspects of the Russian economy performance during the WWI. They described the scale of measures taken by the government bodies in the financial and industrial sphere and assessed the results of the Russian government's activities in the socio-economic sphere at large. However, the deterioration of the general socio-economic situation in the country was, apart from the causes identified by the researchers, also due to ineffective measures taken by the government within the then existing credit and financial system, including in its relatively narrow segment such as lending for import transactions. The purpose of this paper is to identify the shortcomings of the Japanese arms supply credit system to Russia during the WWI. The authors conclude that the Russian Empire credited import operations for the purchase of weapons and military equipment at the expense of its allies, primarily the financial and credit institutions of the British Empire, which gave rise to a bureaucratic mechanism that was not always successful in organizing imports from third countries, including Japan. An attempt to negotiate with the Japanese authorities for a direct loan to the Russian government resulted in failure.