Introduction

The role of oil in the contemporary international economy is no less prominent – and perhaps even more decisive – than that formerly played by spices, salt, silk, wool, cotton, fats, coal or minerals. The commercial exploits of Venice and Genoa, the Iberian states and the Dutch, English and French companies round the world manifested many motives of personal enterprise and government opportunism. Changing balances of power, technical innovation and the accelerating pace of communications have affected business methods, and new social attitudes have altered political relations, but the incentive of profit and the responsibilities of governments remain essential aspects of human activity. The interaction of these elements and the increasing exploitation of natural resources present individuals and states with challenging opportunities for self-advancement and national prosperity as well as with difficult problems of reconciling divergent interests. Such issues have also been raised by the emergence of the oil industry in the late nineteenth century, and French experience provides a pertinent example. Diplomacy was no more immune from economic realities than business was exempt from the impact of political activities.

The commercial discovery of oil in 1859 has transformed the modes of transportation and added a new factor to the energy equation. Moreover, as a result of the introduction of mechanized warfare in the First World War, oil acquired strategic implications of no less importance in the sphere of international relations. French business, although possessing a small and technically competent shale oil industry in Alsace, was relatively slow to appreciate the potential of oil, though its industrialists early recognized the importance of the automobile.