The economic war is a polysemous concept which can return to several definitions:

  • One can speak about economic war to indicate the Concurrence exacerbated between Entreprise S, this one appearing by aggressive practices (industrial Espionnage, Dumping…). According to some, this use concerns an abuse of language.

  • From a point of view mercantilist or néo-mercantilist, the economic war indicates a conflict between concurrent economies in the play of the international exchanges, conflict from which one will leave gaining and a loser (if the “economic war” is avoided by reciprocal concessions, one speaks sometimes about “enlightened mercenary attitude”).
  • From a point of view mercantilist or imperialist, the “war economic” can consist of a military action having economic purposes.
  • Within the framework of an armed conflict, one speaks about economic war to stress the importance of the industrial dimension of the conflict.
  • In this same context, the economic war also makes it possible to make pressure on the populations enemies: thanks to the blockade for example.

The economic War in the mercantilists

The concept of “economic war” remains relatively vague and cannot be allotted to such or such current of thought without neglecting certain subtleties of them. Although some mercantilists admit the benefits of the foreign trade, the concept of war economic finds its bases in this thought which dominated the economy of the XVI {{E}} at the 18th centuries. One indicates, generally in a pejorative way, preaching term “néo-mercantilists” the people that the International business concerns a “economic war”.

This period is marked by a rise of the maritime power of the the United Kingdom and Plain Provinces, which seek to develop economic new rules which are more favorable to them, whereas the powers of Europe of the South (Spain and Portugal) profited from a monopoly with the Traité of Tordesillas (1494) at the time of the Grandes discoveries at the end of the 15th century and with the 16th century. After the creation of the English Company of the Eastern Indies by the England (1600) then the response of the Plain Provinces with the Company Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies (1602), the France reacts in its turn by the creation of the French Compagnie of the Eastern Indies (1664).

It is in this context of commercial war that the Dutch lawyer Hugo Grotius founded the International law.

This intra-European commercial war should not thus make forget the importance of the International law in the appearance of competitions between economic powers.

Economy with the service of the war

Following Machiavel, the majority of the thinkers mercantilists see in the economy art to enrich the Prince and the kingdom, from a point of view of power, i.e. a military optics.

Thus the French mercantilist Antoine de Montchrestien explains in 1615:

“It is impossible to make the war without men, to maintain the men without balances, to provide to their balance without tributes, of raising tributes without trade. ”

Thus to increase the power of the Prince while enabling him to carry out the war, it is essential to develop the national trade, and to fight the foreign trade. The objective is double: it is necessary that the Prince has more gold, and that the foreign Princes have some less. Accordingly, nation's economy with a warlike vocation. Jean-Baptiste Colbert precise: “The companies of trade are the armies of the king, and manufactures are its reserves”. The objective of its “armies” and to push back the foreign “armies”. Thus to underline this hatred of the foreign trade, Antoine de Montchrestien declares:

“The foreign merchants are as pumps which draw out of the kingdom the pure substance of our people; in fact leeches stick to this large body of France, draw its best blood and gorge themselves some”

The war with the service of the economy

The idea that the Guerre can be a factor of Economic growth was in the beginning developed by the mercantilists.

To gain the economic war, the mercantilists recommend the military expansion, not against the unfavourable powers only, but against third nations. In order to limit the dependence with respect to the foreign merchants, it is necessary to annex the territories which will provide the richnesses the Métropole does not have. The mercantilists thus recommend the colonial expansion.

The dynamics of the economic war

The interactions between war and economy produce a dynamics favorable at the same time to the military power and the national wealth. Admittedly, the conquests increase the richnesses, and the richnesses increase the conquest appropriatenesses, but the system mercantilist also rests on mechanisms more subtle. For example, the monopolies granted to the national companies for the trade with the colonies (as Navigation Act de Cromwell) allow the expansion of the merchant fleet of the country, and reduce the profitable construction appropriatenesses of ships for the unfavourable countries. The trade thus allows the control of the seas and conversely.

Critical of the economic war mercantilist

For the philosophers of the Lights

The philosophers of the Lights are among the first (preceded by some statesmen as Vauban) has to criticize the system mercantilist. In Of the spirit of the laws , Montesquieu wants to show that Commerce and Peaces always go hand in hand:

The Trade cures destroying prejudices; and it is almost a general rule, which everywhere where there is trade, there is soft manners; and that everywhere where there are soft manners, there is trade. The natural effect of the trade is to carry to peace. Two nations which negotiate together make reciprocally dependant; if one may find it beneficial to buy, the other may find it beneficial to sell; and all the unions are founded on mutual needs. ”

Thereafter, the philosopher David Hume will attack directly the theory mercantilist while trying to show the theoretical faults of them. According to the mercantilists, the international business must be used to fill the cases of the State. It is necessary thus that the trade balance is surplus. David Hume tries to show that on the long run a trade balance is balanced always overall. Thus, when a nation has an active balance, the strong one of re-entry of currency causes inflation and thus a loss of competitiveness which results in a trade balance becoming overdrawn. The economic war delivered by the mercantilists thus concerns for him a theoretical error.

At the liberal economists and keynésiens

For holding of the economic liberalism, the prosperity of the ones made the prosperity of the others. The confrontation of the egoistic or national interests should not lead to the war but to the harmony. Thus according to Jean-Baptiste Say:

“A nation, compared to a close nation, is in the same case as a province compared to another province, than a city compared to the campaigns: it is interested to see it thriving, and assured to benefit from its opulence. ”

It was also the opinion defended by John Maynard de Keynes at the time of the crisis of the years 1930 when the governments tried to secure unemployment by exporting it in the foreign countries (political known as: beggar my neighbor policy). According to him, measurements harming the foreign economies, harm into final the nation's economy.

The economic war in optics néo-mercantilist

Certain States or individuals, qualified “néo-mercantilists” see in the international business an economic war requiring of the aggressive practices. Their ideas are illustrated according to them by the many commercial quarrels between nations. Thus Elie Cohen explains:

There is an old bottom mercantilist in France which tends to see in the commercial quarrels the shadow of the economic war, even of the war by other means.

In the free-traders

Paul Krugman estimates that the concept of war economic derives from the dangerous obsession of competitiveness and the desire to get shivers:

“First of all, the image of the competition is more exciting and the shiver makes sell. The subtitle of the enormous best-seller which was the work To ballast Thurow Head to Head is “the future economic battle between Japan, Europe and America”; the fourth of cover announces that “the decisive war of the century started and America perhaps already decided to lose it”.

But for him, the diffusion of the concept of “economic war” is a true problem because she threatens the assets of the international business and risk to lead to a commercial war which does not take place to be:

“Another danger, much more serious, would be that this obsession of competitiveness leads to conflicts in connection with the international business, even with a true commercial war. ”

Theoretical work of this authors sought to show that the national wealth was not dependant on the international competitiveness of a country but on its only productivity. Consequently the idea that the best competitiveness of the foreign countries does not have negative effects on the interior richness.

The economic war at Joseph Schumpeter

It is not with the economic war as competition between states that Joseph Schumpeter was interested but in the risk of a keen and thus potentially harmful competition between companies. It rejects the idea that the competition exacerbated between economic entities having for end the constitution of monopoly has some destroying consequence. According to him this competition does not constitute a “war with the knife” harming the general interest.

Various current practices

Competing laying off

This practice consists in trying to engage employees of concurrent companies, with two aims:

  • to reduce the labor force and the know-how of the concurrent company;
  • thanks to the discharged employee, to recover the work methods, the techniques of the concurrent company, thanks to the Know-how of the engaged person.

The Lobbying

It is a technique of pressure or influence on decision makers (political, economic often). It can be direct, by interventions, or even soudoiement (see: Corruption), or indirect by the creation of sites Web, Mailing S, the Communities of practice, reviews, articles directed in the newspapers, publicity, and by the Communication in all its forms, all means intended to influence the Mentality S.

The Lobbying is facilitated by the fact that the companies now associate competences of ONG on the questions Sociétale S (environment, Human rights). This practice frequent in the Anglo-Saxon world (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Scandinavia), and is facilitated by the use of the English language like Common language.

In addition to the ONG, the Lobbying employs today institutional networks like those of the international Chamber of commerce, WBCSD, the Business Action for Sustainable Development, OECD, OMC, the the IMF, the Sommets of the Earth. It is based on the effectiveness of account-returned written written by certain people or networks which take part in the tops.

Even if drifts exist, generally it is not a question of methods dishonest persons in the sense that they are generally based on rules enacted gradually by international agencies. On the other hand, the legal Système Anglo-Saxon of Common law proves more effective, in any case until today, to address the Enjeu X Sociétaux of the Sustainable development and the Responsabilité sociétale through the multiplicity for the Recipients of the Entreprise S.

The Lobbying finds a ground fertile in the implementation of the news Norme S accountants IAS/IFRS which integrates the immaterial Capital henceforth.

Through the Lobbying, they is two Culture S and two designs of legal Systèmes which are confronted: the civil law which dominate in continental Europe, and the Common law.

The standardization

The Standard S and the standards in general (Safety, Information systems, Accounts Department, Traceability, etc) can make it possible to achieve certain goals:

  • to protect itself from a foreign Competition;
  • to impose its products on third countries, when the Norme S in question have an international application (example: GMO).

The preeminence of the English in the international relations belongs to this standardization, and handicaps the countries where the English is not the Native tongue (see also: Academy of the English Rug), or the geographical areas as the Europe where there exists a great diversity of Native tongues.

The Norme S accountants IAS/IFRS are the standards which currently have the most influence on the Gestion of the Entreprise S, and even indirectly on the systems of Public accounts in the European Union. It is a question indeed today of entering the immaterial Capital consisted the Compétence S of the companies, their commercial relations, their structures (Brevet S, Information systems of the companies and even of the administration S). This accounting is intended to be managed through the Intangible fixed assets, which, with the dires of much of experts, accounts for 60 to 70% of the Valeur of the companies.

Thus, one invests today twice more in pure knowledge (formation, Conduite change,…) that in the pure production equipments.

The Social Learning

The objective is the conditioning of the people on the cultural level, in order to modify the lifestyles. Publicity, marketing even the school are the principal vectors.

Humanitarian actions and the ONG

These institutions can have a cultural, economic, and political influence on the countries where they are established, and being used by the companies like a means of being introduced into new countries.

The competing counterfeit

The counterfeit is the imitation of a product developed by a competitor. It concerns for example, the luxury items, but also the software, the drugs, etc.
This competition is often illegal because she violates the Industrial property and the Brevet S.

The War of information

The war of information is the common point of the majority of the methods employed today (Lobbying, standardization, Social learning,…) to acquire an economic superiority by exploiting the Cultural factor .

The acquisition of Connaissance S employs today methods which are not necessarily dishonest persons like the open Sources (white information), i.e. the collection of Information S available in open Source on the networks Internet.

The best method to secure itself against a systematic Pillage is to adopt a systematically careful and nonnaive attitude, and to build networks Extranet in access restricted for the Communautés of practice which relate to only some Recipients company.

See also the articles: economic Intelligence, and industrial Espionage.

Economic terrorism

See the dedicated article: economic Terrorism

See too

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