Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/221

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credit of others, and they were not afraid of meeting the usurer's bogey—inflation! What have been the results? Although they suffered a terrible military defeat and are compelled to pay a war indemnity, they are to-day the most prosperous industrial nation in Europe. They have escaped the ruinous interest charges with which we and France are burdened! Their factories are running full time and they have but a very small percentage of unemployed—far, far less than any of the allied nations. Their industries are earning fabulous profits. They realize by experience that their cheap currency gives them an enormous advantage in trade competition over their riyals who are still deluded by the gold standard dear-currency theories! Hence they are capturing the world's markets as fast as their factories are able to turn out the goods. In short, whilst our orthodox Economists, financiers and Government officials are doing their best to strangle British enterprise by reviving their old and exploded financial theories, our sworn foe is invading our markets, capturing our trade, and that of our allies by adopting the very policy our orthodox Economists have condemned as impracticable and ruinous."

This passage is taken from Mr. Kitson's Foreword, which is dated May 20, 1921. It