This table is why the naval race is the wrong place to look. In the final five years before the war, German naval spending grew more slowly than the German army budget — the dreadnought contest had already been decided, and Berlin knew it. Britain, the power everyone assumes was racing hardest, increased its army budget by less than 6%.

Source. Eric Dorn Brose, ‘Arms Race prior to 1914, Armament Policy’, 1914-1918-online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War, Tables 2 and 5. Figures are current pounds sterling, not inflation-adjusted. Brose’s article cites David Herrmann’s The Arming of Europe as a source, but Herrmann’s own expenditure table (Appendix B, p. 237) carries materially different figures, so these numbers should be attributed to Brose alone.