ABSTRACT
The later years of Bradford Mills at Marki reflect a complex period in both Polish and European history generally. In August 1914 the eastern front of the Great War surged across the Polish lands, Łódź was captured by the Germans in October but the Russian occupation of Warsaw held out for a year under increasing bombardment from the West. This chapter will contrast the success of Bradford’s industry and the Marki firm to capitalise on unprecedented military investment in 1914. It will consider the general chaos and devastation caused first by the retreating Russian army and then by the occupying German regime to both Warsaw’s municipal infrastructure and to private industries. Using the previously unexplored correspondence of the Warsaw merchant Arnold Korff, this chapter will describe the precarious situation the hostilities created for Warsaw’s cosmopolitan elite and their tactics to protect their Polish assets. It will consider the logistical and economic challenges of re-establishing the Marki business in the post-war period against a back drop of continuing international hostilities, internal political chaos and hyperinflation, considering the loss of the Russian market and protection. It will describe the Marki partners’ resourceful approach to recouping their war-time losses: through legal action in Poland and Germany, by using the ‘free-standing company’ model to raise funds in Bradford and their eventual participation in the cartel system, to restore their firm’s profitability in an entirely transformed Polish commercial arena.
