Return to the Status Quo

The management faced many new problems in resuming chassis manufacture in 1919. A large volume of unfulfilled orders received just before and during the war had been placed in chronological order and the customers informed that their orders would be executed as soon as possible. Many had signed contracts for chassis at pre-war prices or provisional prices which bore little relation to post-war costs, and this error of judgement required tedious negotiation with each individual customer. To preserve goodwill Johnson decided that the order had to be fulfilled at the agreed price if the customer would not voluntarily agree to an increase. Apart from these orders demand was a completely unknown quantity. The important export trade had been completely disrupted and had to be re-established under very different conditions, often in the face of heavy tariffs (the French tariff was 70 per cent) imposed for balance of payments reasons or to protect the recovery of local vehicle manufacture. The damage which war causes to the commercial structure of the economic system is usually far more serious than the destruction of physical assets. Its repair depends upon the re-creation of mutual trust and confidence and economic stability. Both are invariably absent in the immediate aftermath of a war.