The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

by Adam Tooze

Originally confined to the financing and purchasing of wheat, then the distribution of coal, inter-Allied cooperation extended in the autumn of 1917 to the common regulation of all-important shipping capacity.22 The Allied Maritime Transport Council, based in London, was made up of representatives of all the combatant governments, headed by Britain and France. Though each delegate owed primary loyalty to his national government, they collectively constituted an inter-governmental authority capable of making decisions affecting the lives of literally every inhabitant of Europe, whether civilian or soldier. Given the extremity of their situation, by early 1918 it was the Entente Powers, not Wilson, who were exploring radical new forms of cooperation and coordination.