bankrupt nation preparing for the greatest building boom on record, equipping a floating exhibition ship to capture foreign markets and inaugurating huge canalization, electric power and other schemes."
From all this mass of queer and conflicting evidence it will appear that if Germany has not an exportable surplus at present, she is very well equipped for getting one as soon as it is made clear to her that it will pay her best in the long run to try to meet the payments demanded on indemnity account. "With a properly limited currency," said Professor Cannan in one of the Manchester Guardian Commercial's "Reconstruction" numbers, "Germany will soon find her feet again and be able to pay a good deal, if she is willing. I have no patience with those who imagine that how much she can pay can be discovered by an examination of her balance of trade, either before the war or now. One of the most certain things in economics is that a country's balance of trade depends on what she chooses or is obliged to pay." Just as we, as Mr. McKenna showed, year by year produced more than we consumed and lent the balance to our customers, so Germany can produce more than she consumes and pay the money raised by her sale of the balance to her
