Merchants of death

Merchants of death is a pejorative directed at the arms industry and also often at international bankers. It originated in the Great Depression. This theory claimed that an international munitions industry conspired to control the fate of nations via improper influence over government officials. The purpose of this supposed conspiracy was to extract profits from human death. During peacetime, the conspirators would stir up antagonism and war between nations so that they could then arm the combatants and line their pockets with the proceeds. The phrase is a forerunner of the military-industrial complex concept that became popular during the Vietnam War.

Merchants of death is considered a derogatory term by scholars. Anti-war activists who use the phrase likewise describe it as a pejorative. It has been described as ugly in spirit and slanderous. In addition to its use as a derogatory term, merchants of death refers to a conspiracy theory claiming that war is caused by artificial conflicts stirred up by arms makers and bankers for their own profit. The first use of the term occurred during the Great Depression and it quickly achieved popularity during the lead-up to WWII.

A very comforting myth has evolved through the years to account for mankind's penchant for self-destruction. War can be blamed squarely on two elements of society that are limited in number, highly visible, and unloved—the munitions makers and their associates, the international bankers. These devils have come to be known collectively as "merchants of death," although the term is quite often applied to the munitions makers alone.

— Anne Trotter

Although a few cases of unethical behavior on the part of arms makers around the year 1900 influenced the later birth of the term, the allegations of conspiracy that were widely alleged under the moniker merchants of death were found to be baseless by the Nye Committee and subsequent investigations.

The term became popular once again during the Vietnam War at the same time that the similar phrase military-industrial complex first achieved common usage. Military-industrial complex is likewise almost always pejorative and carries sinister overtones.

Popular anxiety that a ruler may lead a nation into war for his own self-interests has a long history dating to the dawn of society. However, criticism of arms makers is a modern phenomenon originating in the Industrial Revolution. Armorers were well-to-do artisans in Ancient Greece and Rome through the Middle Ages in European towns known for arms making such as Toledo, Milan, Nuremberg, and Liège. But ancient armorers remained firmly in the class of respectable artisans rather than rising to become wealthy businessmen.

Animosity towards the arms industry became a matter of public debate at the start of the 20th century. Socialists began blaming war on capitalists at the Second International where they took up the cause of antimilitarism and J. A. Hobson claimed in 1902 that wars are started by businessmen feigning national antagonisms which have no basis in reality. A fictional arms manufacturer was portrayed negatively in the 1905 play Major Barbara with lines like You will make war when it suits us, and keep peace when it doesn’t The international peace movement first focused attention on large European arms makers such as Schneider-Creusot, Krupp, Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth, and Škoda around the time of the Second Hague Conference in 1907.