Armi e grande industria

“From the moment warfare became a branch of the ‘grande industrie’ (iron clad ships, rifled artillery, quickfiring and repeating cannons, repeating rifles, steel covered bullets, smokeless powder, etc.), ‘la grande industrie’, without which all these things cannot be made, became a political necessity. All these things cannot be had without a highly developed metal manufacture. And that manufacture cannot be had without a corresponding development in all other branches of manufacture, especially textiles” (Frederick Engels, letter to Danielson, September 1892, in ‘Selected Correspondence of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, London, 1936, p. 498) [Nigel Harris, Of Bread. And Guns. The world economy in crisis, 1983]