What the Great War showed was that the political and administrative apparatus of the beligerant countries were incapable of coping with the massive spending that the war demanded. And again, it was not really a matter of those economic resources not existing, but a matter of them not being available for the state. Almost all of the belligerant nations, on both sides, decided to rely on public debt to finance the war, avoiding as much as possible increases in taxation. And in all cases, it had the same disastrous effects. Britain, due to her great economic strength and greater fiscal resources, was the one that suffered the least. But France and Germany ended the war drowning in debt, and the Russian Empire ended up collapsing. The Russian government had decided to get the printing press running to finance the war, and by late 1916 - early 1917 inflation had scalated to such levels that the peasants refused to accept printed money in exchange for their product, which led to the cities starving, which led to the revolutionary outbreaks of February 1917.
Leading a XX century style total war with XIX century style "laissez faire" (and in some countries, even feudal) fiscal structures was just impossible, and most belligerant countries learned it the hard way.
Leading a XX century style total war with XIX century style "laissez faire" (and in some countries, even feudal) fiscal structures was just impossible, and most belligerant countries learned it the hard way.
