Merchants of death was an epithet used in the U.S. in the 1930s to attack industries and banks that had supplied and funded World War I (then called the Great War).
The term originated in 1932 as the title of an article about an arms dealer named Basil Zaharoff: "Zaharoff, Merchant of Death". [1] It was then borrowed for the title of the book Merchants of Death (1934), an exposé by H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen. [2]
The term was popular in antiwar circles of both the left and the right, and was used extensively regarding the Senate hearings in 1936 by the Nye Committee. The Senate hearing examined how much influence the manufacturers of armaments had in the American decision to enter World War I. Ninety-three hearings were held, over 200 witnesses were called, and little hard evidence of a conspiracy was found. The Nye Committee came to an end when Chairman Nye accused President Woodrow Wilson of withholding information from Congress when he chose to enter World War I. The failure of the committee to find a conspiracy did not change public prejudice against the manufactures of armaments, thus the popular name "merchants of death". [3] [4]
Extraordinary arms sales produce fear, hostility, greater munitions orders, economic strain and collapse or war. Munitions companies engaged in bribery of foreign governmental officials to secure business. Profits flowed from German orders for aviation materiel. Munitions companies evaded the embargo of arms to China. The committee also found price-fixing agreements and profit-sharing arrangements. [5]
Similar allegations in Great Britain resulted in a major government inquiry in 1935–1936. [6]
| External videos | |
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| Exploring the topic centred on the book, Merchants of Death (1934). | |
 How Capitalism Changed the Face of War, Johnny Harris, Feb 2024. |
Merchants of Death (1934) covers the history of the Arms industry. Featured companies include DuPont, Colt, Remington, Vickers, Schneider-Creusot, Krupp, and Škoda Works. Individuals include Hiram Maxim and Basil Zaharoff. Arms profits before and during World War I are compared. [2] :159 The growth of Japanese armaments is covered.
Sir Basil Zaharoff, GCB, GBE was a Greek arms dealer and industrialist. One of the richest men in the world during his lifetime, Zaharoff was described as both a "merchant of death" and a "mystery man of Europe". His success was forged through his cunning, often aggressive and sharp, business tactics. These included the sale of arms to opposing sides in conflicts, sometimes delivering fake or faulty machinery and skilfully using the press to attack business rivals.
The Neutrality Acts were a series of acts passed by the US Congress in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 in response to the growing threats and wars that led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following the US joining World War I, and they sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts.
A war profiteer is any person or organization that derives unreasonable profit from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term typically carries strong negative connotations. General profiteering, making a profit criticized as excessive or unreasonable, also occurs in peacetime. An example of war profiteers were the "shoddy" millionaires who allegedly sold recycled wool and cardboard shoes to soldiers during the American Civil War. Some have argued that major modern defense conglomerates like Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi, Boeing, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and Raytheon fit the description in the post-9/11 era. This argument is based in the political influence of the defense industry, for example in 2010 the defense industry spent $144 million on lobbying and donated over $22.6 million to congressional candidates, as well as large profits for defense company shareholders in the post-9/11 period.
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, with the remainder being divested as Vickers plc in 1977.
The Nye Committee, officially known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, was a United States Senate committee, chaired by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye (R-ND). The committee investigated the financial and banking interests that underlay the United States' involvement in World War I and the operations and profits of the industrial and commercial firms supplying munitions to the Allies and to the United States. It was a significant factor in public and political support for American neutrality in the early stages of World War II.
The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department and the Navy Department. Because the United States Department of Defense would only come into existence in 1947, this was an ad hoc construction to promote cooperation between the Army and the Navy, it was founded by the Council of National Defense. The War Industries Board was preceded by the General Munitions Board —which didn't have the authority it needed and was later strengthened and transformed into the WIB.
Gerald Prentice Nye was an American politician who represented North Dakota in the United States Senate from 1925 to 1945. Nye rose to national fame in the 1930s as chair of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, which studied the causes of United States' involvement in World War I and became known as the Nye Committee. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was a prominent opponent of United States involvement in World War II.
War Is a Racket is a speech and a 1935 short book by Smedley D. Butler, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient. Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. He had been appointed commanding officer of the Gendarmerie during the 1915–1934 United States occupation of Haiti.
The 73rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1935, during the first two years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. Because of the newly ratified 20th Amendment, the duration of this Congress, along with the term of office of those elected to it, was shortened by 60 days. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1930 United States census.
Rush Dew Holt Sr. was an American politician who was a United States Senator from West Virginia (1935–1941) and a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.
British re-armament was a period in British history, between 1934 and 1939, when a substantial programme of re-arming the United Kingdom was undertaken. Re-armament was deemed necessary, because defence spending had gone down from £766 million in 1919–20, to £189 million in 1921–22, to £102 million in 1932.
Merchant of Death, death merchants, or variations may refer to:
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Some of the methods used to achieve these goals include advocacy of pacifism, nonviolent resistance, diplomacy, boycotts, peace camps, ethical consumerism, supporting anti-war political candidates, supporting legislation to remove profits from government contracts to the military–industrial complex, banning guns, creating tools for open government and transparency, direct democracy, supporting whistleblowers who expose war crimes or conspiracies to create wars, demonstrations, and political lobbying. The political cooperative is an example of an organization which seeks to merge all peace-movement and green organizations; they may have diverse goals, but have the common ideal of peace and humane sustainability. A concern of some peace activists is the challenge of attaining peace when those against peace often use violence as their means of communication and empowerment.
Frank Cleary Hanighen was an American journalist.
Helmuth Carol Engelbrecht was an American writer.
John O'Neill was an Irish businessman who was an Irish Free State senator in 1925. He was formally independent, but took a pro-Cumann na nGaedheal line. In 1925 he was living in Delgany, County Wicklow, and described himself as a "cycle manufacturer and motor trader". He owned O'Neill Motors, a Dublin garage acquired in 1959 by Ryan's Car Hire.
The Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of and Trading in Arms was a British official inquiry into the armaments industry. It was appointed on 20 February 1935 and was chaired by Sir John Bankes. Its report was published in October 1936.
Charles Emile Etienne Dumont was a left-leaning French politician who was Minister of Public Works in 1911 and Minister of Finance in 1913. The "Dumont Resolution" passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 1917 called for security after World War I (1914–18) to be based on the armed forces of France and her allies, and also for the establishment of a society of nations. Dumont was again Minister of Finance in 1930, and was Minister of the Navy in 1931–32. He initiated construction of the battleship Dunkerque as part of a naval expansion program. Dumont came from a family of peasant winemakers from the Jura, and did much to promote development of that region as president of the Jura Departmental Council from 1921 to 1939.
Dealers in Death is a 1934 documentary film on the defense industry. It implied that the First World War was fought for the benefit of arms dealers such as Basil Zaharoff and claims that moves toward rearmament and war in the mid-1930s were prompted by the same interests.
The Senate Investigation into Motion Picture War Propaganda was a 1941 investigation by a group of isolationist United States Senators which set out to find evidence that the United States movie industry was agitating for the United States to join World War II on the side of the Allies.