should be adopted in each country so as to ensure full contribu-
tion from individuals according to their capacity to pay, there
should be avoided any such incidence of "double" taxation
which would form an obstacle, as it was still doing, to the in-
vestment of capital abroad.
Among the documents presented to the Conference (and pub- lished with the Report) there was included a large amount of material of permanent value to the financial historian, the nature of which can only be indicated here statements of the existing financial position in each country, together with analy- ses of international trade movements, gold holdings and cur- rency expansion, and papers by financial experts on the main outstanding problems. Taken as a whole, these documents pro- vided a full comparative account of the changes in the inter- national financial position between 1913 and 1920.
In the separate articles on national finance in this Encyclo- paedia, under the headings for each country, its history during the extended period of 1910-21 is sufficiently narrated to make jt unnecessary here, however, to refer to anything but general and comparative international considerations; and for the pur- pose of showing the salient changes between the pre-war and post-war positions the most instructive figures presented to the Brussels Conference (comparison being best shown in terms of dollars) are probably those reproduced in the accompanying tables (partly rearranged), representing national wealth (income) as compared with budget revenue and expenditure (Table I.), national taxation in 1920 (Table II.), the burden of debt (Table III.: see also NATIONAL DEBT), gold-movements between 1913 and 1919 (Table IV.), notes in circulation (Table V.), and the amount of foreign trade (Tables VI. and VII.). For the foreign- exchange problem, see EXCHANGES, FOREIGN; but here the com- parative figures are brought up to the latest available dates in the two tables (VIII. and IX.) which show the London rates on Dec. 22 1921, and the New York rates on Jan. 14 1922.
In spite of the recommendations of the Brussels Conference, very slight progress was made during 1921 so far as the general position of international finance was concerned. The depression in trade, affecting more particularly the United Kingdom and the United States the only countries intrinsically capable of functioning up to their productive capacity consequent on the
lack of international purchasing-power, and really representing a world-condition of underconsumption (mistakenly called " overproduction " by those who looked only at its superficial aspect), added to the difficulties of immediate recovery. The protracted controversies in the political arena over reparation- payments by Germany, due partly to aggressive French insist- ence, partly to a general lack of comprehension of their economic aspects, left European statesmen little opportunity to devote themselves to ordinary business questions. The instability of the exchanges made the situation peculiarly difficult for the business men themselves. The fact that the United States, during 1920-1, had disinterested itself in European troubles, and was not lend- ing the financial assistance and cooperation which had been so confidently expected when the war ended, was a vital factor in the financial detente. British Labour was in serious conflict with Capital and with the Government; and the troubles in Ireland, together with the public demand for more drastic Government economies in expenditure (" an ti- waste "), made it impracticable for Great Britain to take the lead in securing any material ad- vance towards a constructive world-policy in international finance. A theoretically correct, but practically premature, policy of "deflation," on the part of the official pundits in London, together with the crippling effect of the very high scale of taxation, kept British Government finance technically "sound," but it checked British industrial and commercial enterprise at a stage when wiser counsels, if they could have been brought into operation, should, it may be thought, have put into the forefront the provision of financial facilities for the rebuilding of British trade. And in the United States the same policy, adopted by the American bankers and Government from the lead given by the Bank of England and in Whitehall, was followed, as in Great Britain, by a great increase of unemploy- ment, although, merely from a financial point of view, it might have seemed that American resources should now have been ample by contrast with British for a more "adventurous" programme. In the financial history of 1910-21 no fact, indeed, is likely to seem more remarkable eventually than that, during this period, the United States, which had been unhurt by the war and had made enormous profits during the course of it which had been converted from a debtor into a creditor country,
TABLE VII. Foreign Trade: Value in National Currency (ooo,ooo's omitted).
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Country
IQI3
IQIQ
Imports
Exports
Excess of Imports over Exports + Excess of Exports over Imports
Imports
Exports
Excess of Imports over Exports + Excess of Exports over Imports
I Belgium (Franc) Bulgaria (Leva)
Jelligerent Co
4,636 189
8,421
10,770 178 3-646 89 659 495 Neutral Cou 771 3,9i8 1,306 847 1,920 Countries i 496 78 1,007 2,257 4 659 726 21-4 40 1,757
untries of EL
3-634 93 6,880
10,099 119
2,512 35 525 45 ntries of Eur
637 3,083 1,057 817 1.376 Dutside Euro
519 75 982 2,490* 436 629
21
27 2,448
rope. + 1,002 + 96
+ 1,541 { + 671 + 59 + I.I34 + 54 + 134 + 90 ope.
+ 134 + 835 + 249 + 30 + 544 pe. - 23 + 3 + 25 - 233* + 223 + 97 + 0-4
+ , 13 - 6qi
5,246 964 29,778 ' 29, 1 88 32,376 1,619
16,517 231
1,467 2,505
2,357 2,825 899 2,499 3,533
620 82
1,334 2,326* 941 2,125 30 46 3,733
2,296 552 8.7I3 1 7,429 * 10,057
753 5-189 no 798 843
734 1,411 1,316 1,589 3.298
959' 131 2,179 3,058< 1,241 2,051 52 47 7,75i
+ 2,950 + 412 + 21,065'
+ 21,759' + 22,319 + 866 + 11,328
+ 121
+ 669 + 1,662
+ 1,623 + I-4H - 427 + 910 + 235
- 339
49 - 845 - 732 4 300 + 74
22 I
- 4,01 8
Germany (Mark)
Italy (Lira) Portugal (Milreis) United Kingdom () Finland (Mark) . . .
Holland (Gulden) Spain (Peseta) Sweden (Krone)
Australia () Brazil (Milreis) . British India (Rupee) Canada (Dollar) . Japan (Yen) New Zealand () . South Africa () . United States of America (Dollar)
"Including Alsace-Lorraine. 'Excluding Alsace-Lorraine. 'Estimated on nine months of 1919. 4 Including treasure.
