The French have enjoyed a long tradition of innovation in arms design. This said, it is a practice which has been undertaken with one hand effectively tied behind their back. The main problem was that the French wanted to equip their forces with home-grown designs by the state. If this could not be achieved, there was also the fall-back option of a non-state, private manufacturer, which again for military use needed to be a French company. The private manufacturer option itself was one which was not entered into lightly, as this presented the problem of universal exports and as such, offered potential enemies the ready chance to acquire and evaluate items in advance of a conflict. The final and almost a total taboo, was to use the designs of a third party. This would have to be only in the case that the first two options could not provide the design required, or that the options offered were so inferior that this one had to be pursued. There was one final caveat placed upon option three; under NO circumstances should this entail any form of royalty-based agreement.
It was not until 1919 and the implications of the Treaty of Versailles and reparation payments that France was finally able to produce what they actually wanted, as opposed to having to apply the previous restrictions. France demanded and indeed got, access to the German arms industries patents and as a result, in the inter-war period, France was able to make up for years of having to make do.
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