The Nationalization of War Industries in France, 1936-1937: A Case Study

Abstract

The nationalization of the French war industries by the Popular Front government in 1936 and 1937 has seldom been examined outside its immediate political context. At the time, conservative spokesmen condemned the measure as just one more step down the road to state socialism. Others, including its major supporter, the French Socialist party, saw the legislation as a major blow against war profiteering and the international trade in arms.' But such one-dimensional judgments obscure another aspect of the nationalization program: its close relationship with the existing pattern of military-industrial affairs in France. Since the beginning of World War I, military technology had become increasingly complex and, at least in the more advanced industrial states, nearly inseparable from the larger national economy. These changes quickly produced serious conflicts between military bureaucrats and civilian businessmen. Important questions included the extent of the state's control over the economy in the name of national defense and the division of labor between the private sector and the government arsenals. These matters were fundamental to the creation and implementation of any nationalization program. Based on research in the archives of the Renault automobile company, the following study offers a glimpse into this process and its place in the unique historical architecture of interwar France.2 Prior to 1914, the production of arms, munitions, and other military equipment had generally been confided to a small number of state arsenals, many dating back to the age of Louis XIV and