They unfurled the banner of
aggressive reprisal with the sole object of crushing the one-time
business supremacy of their foes.
The chief recommendations were: To meet, by tariff discrimination,
boycott or otherwise, any individual or organised trade advance of the
Central Powers--already Germany, Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria have
reached a commercial understanding; to forego any "favoured-nation"
relation with the enemy for an indefinite period; to conserve for
themselves, "before all others," their natural resources during the
period of reconstruction; to make themselves independent of enemy
countries in the raw materials and manufactured products essential to
their economic well-being; and to facilitate this exchange by
preferential trade among themselves, and by special and state subsidies
to shipping, railroads and telegraphs. Another important decree
prohibits the enemy from engaging in certain industries and professions,
such as dyestuffs, in allied countries when these industries relate to
national defence or economic independence.
In short, self-sufficiency became the aim of the whole allied group, to
be achieved without the aid or consent of any other nation or group of
nations, be they friends or foes.
Here, then, is the strategy that will rule after the war. A huge allied
monopoly is projected--a sort of monster militant trust, with cabinets
of ministers for directorates, armies and navies as trade scouts, and
whole roused citizenships for salesmen.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25