The relationship between the debtor and the supplier has two stages. When the debtor owes a little bit of money, the supplier owns them. When the debtor owes a lot of money, the debtor owns the supplier.
In WW1, America became one of the biggest banks the world had ever seen. Many don’t realize, but before WW1, America was not a powerhouse economically. Britain was by far the leading superpower economically and Europe, in general, was known to be the center of trade and business.
However, as WW1 went on, the allied forces had to do everything they could not to lose the war. They would buy or pay whatever they had to for supplies, etc. America became this bank for them.
This is perhaps one of the biggest impacts of WW1. Because the United States stayed out of the war for so long, they were able to gain stupendous advantage economically over many other previous powerhouses. As Britain bought more and more from the US, the debt began to amass into unfathomable amounts. Millions and millions every single week was being borrowed from the US.
At first, this was extremely beneficial for the US. As I mentioned, they started to become an economic powerhouse.
However, as the war went on and Britain borrowed even more from the US. It got to the point where Britain was so in debt to the US that the US began having a vested interested in making sure that Britain survived the war. If they didn’t survive or lost the war, there wouldn’t be someone to pay back the debt or make good on what was borrowed.
In this way, the supplier eventually became the one that was dependant on the debtor, not the other way around.
I continue to learn incredible lessons from this first world conflict. What a different kind of life that was being lived just 100 years before us.