old pre-war value; thirdly, perhaps, because the amounts that Germany was to pay in Reparations had not been settled and the German Government, yery naturally from its point of view, was not at all eager to set its finances in order, but preferred that their chaotic conditions should give as unflattering as possible an appearance to the country's capacity to pay; fourthly because the actual payments that Germany made increased the difficulties of her position. And so the amazing process went on, by which, according to some estimates, gamblers in German currency lost as much as Germany has paid, and the Reichsbank's note issue has been multiplied so many times that the figures of its weekly returns are on an astronomical scale. It is most interesting to consider that a really acute financial observer foresaw before the Armistice, and tried to prevent, the danger to which unlimited printing powers left in the hands of the defeated countries exposed them and the rest of the world. Dr. Alois Rasin, the late Czecho Slovakian Finance Minister, relates in his book on the Financial Policy of Czecho Slovakia during the First Year of its History[1] that when he took office he meant,None
- ↑ Published for the Carnegie Endowment by the Clarendon Press.
