Wars Are Becoming Too Expensive: Comparison Of Cost Through The Ages

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 47, 18 May 1948, Page 6

Wars Are Becoming Too Expensive: Comparison Of Cost Through The Ages

An indication that humanity will have to find a less costly outlet for aggressiveness than war, is contained in a comparison of the cost of seven major wars over the past centuries.

A writer in a southern daily makes the following comment: The truth is that wars are getting far too expensive and unless we put a stop to them the world will soon be in hopeless confusion. World War I. cost some £50,000,000,000 and World War 11. if the answer ever be added up will cost at least double that. In fact, World War I. cost Britain alone nearly £10,000,000,000. In contrast, the entire cost of the Wars of the Roses equalled about half an hour’s worth of World War I. The suit of mail was handed down from father to son and. the troops lived off the land, so that was that. ,

The Doer War cost roughly £100,000,000, or about what folk in Britain were paying at the time every year for their smokes. Nevertheless, until 1914 few wars cost even £1,000,000,000. The Crimean War cost under £400,000,000. The Napoleonic Wars were certainly expensive at £1,250,000,000, as was the American Civil War at £1,600,000,000, but none of these figbres were astronomical in the light of the cost of modern war. In fact, World Wars I. and 11. have cost in the aggregate probably more than the cost of all the previous wars in the world.