Requisitions

The Hague Convention of 1907 allowed an occupier to demand contributions in kind from the population only for the needs of the army of occupation, in proportion to the country's resources, against cash or a receipt. In practice the armies of every side requisitioned food, horses, carts and quarters from the first weeks of the war, and the front passing through Galicia, the Kingdom of Poland, Serbia or northern France left villages stripped bare. States also requisitioned merchant ships, motor cars and even London buses.

As the war dragged on, occupiers replaced ad hoc seizures with quotas, official prices and monopolies. In Warsaw the Germans ordered the requisitioning of metals, leather, wool and chemicals as early as August 1915, and machinery was shipped to the Reich. In the Austro-Hungarian government-general of Lublin, military requisitioners were sent to any village that failed to deliver its quota. Payment was at prices far below the market, so in Stephan Lehnstaedt's view it was in effect a partial requisition. In Belgium the requisitioning of raw materials and removal of machinery helped push unemployment up to 650,000.