Book Description

Excerpt from War Finance In September, 1914, Mr. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that, as in the Napoleonic war, we should win in the end by our financial strength. Germany might get the first hundred millions as easily as Britain, but Britain had far greater staying power. It is not (he said) the first hundred millions that count, but the last. In September, 1917 - just three years later - Mr. Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated in a public speech that without the aid of the United States the financial position of the Allies would to-day be very disastrous. Did Mr. Lloyd George mean that the British Empire could hold on until the intervention of the United States? Certainly not. Perhaps it may be thought that Mr. Bonar Law exaggerated. Where, it may be asked, are the signs in this country of financial disaster or of the need of American support? The recognised test of national financial strength is national income. The imposing figures - too often paraded at the beginning of the War - of the capital value of the United Kingdom or of the British Empire are all based on estimates of national or imperial income. Does the national income of the United Kingdom show any signs of falling off owing to the exhaustion of the War? Are the sign (such as they are suggestive of coming disaster? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.