Cities like Milan and Rome were almost completely in the grip of
the Teutonic lender, and his country cashed in strong on this surest and
hardest of all dominations. This was the one big reason why the Italian
declaration of war against Germany was so long delayed. With this new
banking corporation England not only supplants the German influence but
forges the economic irons that will bind Italy to her.
The capital of the British and Italian Corporation is nominally only
five million dollars. The government, however, agrees to contribute
during each of the first ten years of its existence the sum of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Though imperial stimulation of trade
is one of its main objects, this institution is not without its larger
political value. As this and many other similar enterprises show,
politics and world trade, so far as Great Britain is concerned, will
hereafter be closely interwoven.
Throughout all this British organisation runs the increasing purpose of
an Empire Self-Contained. Whether that phase of the Paris Pact which
calls for development and mobilisation of natural resources sees the
light of reality or not, Britain is determined to take no chances for
her own. She is scouring and searching the world for new fields and new
supplies. She is planning to increase her tea and coffee growing in
Ceylon and make cotton plantations of huge tracts in India and Africa.
The control of the metal fields of Australia has reverted to her hands;
she will get tungsten and oil from Burma.
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