Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 37. (1984)
ORDE, Anne: France and the Genoa Conference of 1922
334 Anne Orde complexion on the whole idea, but the French still did not like it. Seydoux’s instructions for a meeting of experts held in London to frame recommendations on the conference agenda were opposed to the consortium proposal. However it still featured in the report of the experts, French acceptance being made subject to the reservation that parliament could not be committed to a guarantee of the capital45). French officials devoted more thought to the reconstruction of Russia than their British counterparts who, despite Lloyd George’s optimism, were sceptical of the prospects for investment and trade. The French discussion began immediately after Briand’s visit to London in December 1921, with a paper by an official of the Ministry of Finance, Cheysson. Aware that a great deal of capital would be needed to restore the Russian economy, he proposed that a group of European oil companies should combine to obtain a concession for the Caucasus oil and run all the services there, including transport. This enterprise would help to finance a similar chartered company formed by the metallurgical firms concerned in the Donetz basin, an area that had suffered so much destruction and famine that outside help would be needed to start it working again. An international loan would be raised, guaranteed by the chartered companies. Russia would have to be able to service the loan; and part of the profits of the companies would be devoted to paying holders of Russian bonds46). Refined and elaborated in subsequent discussions, this idea formed the basis of French plans. Since oil and the Donetz basis continued to feature prominently in them, it seems necessary to fill in the background. The Donetz basin in 1910 supplied more than three-quarters of the coal and anthracite produced in Russia, about half the output being from concerns with French capital. Of all the joint stock companies in Russia with French investment, more than half were in mining and metallurgy, and geographically more than one third were in south Russia. Belgian firms, much involved in the Dnieper region, included a good deal of French capital47). In 1914 Russia was the world’s second largest oil producer, with a production of 9lA million tons compared with the United States’ 38 million tons48). The bulk of Russian production came from the Baku region in Transcaucasia, and secondly from Grozny in the northern Caucasus. About three hundred companies were involved, but many belonged to three large groups which together accounted for more than half the capital and about half the total production. These were Nobel, who had done much of the pioneering in the 1870s and 80s; the Russian General Oil Corporation, essentially a holding company; and Royal Dutch Shell who came into the Russian 45) Memorandum by Seydoux, 14 March; instructions to Seydoux, 18 March 1922: MAE Relations commerciales 1920-29 89; DBFP 1/19 no. 41, 42 note 9, 56. 46) Memorandum by Cheysson, 27 December 1921: MAE Relations commerciales 1920-29 105. 47) Olga Crisp Studies in the Russian Economy before 1914 (London 1976) 159-188. 4S) Marion Kent Oil and Empire. British Policy and Mesopotamian Oil 1900-1920 (London 1976) 202-203.
