when the process of meeting external interest charges by external borrowing has to stop, and then the full weight of the burden is suddenly laid on the shoulders of those who are really responsible for carrying it, and unless their wealth has in the meantime grown as rapidly as the debt, the process is very unpleasant. But this is unlikely, since otherwise why should additions to external debt have continued?
Nevertheless there have been examples of countries with a considerable external debt, which have been able, through the industry and thrift of their inhabitants, to bring the debt home and so relieve themselves of the burden of external debt charge. France borrowed heavily abroad to pay the German War Indemnity after 1871, but quickly took the debt home, and it is likely that we shall see Germany do the same with the loan issued for her in 1924. It will be remembered also that italy in the years before the war was able to take home most of the italian Rentes that were once freely dealt in in Paris and London, being enabled to do so largely by the wealth that was poured into her by her citizens who went abroad and worked and saved, especially in North and South America, and sent their savings to italy.
France's rapid recovery after 1871, and
