Hence it follows that "safety first" is a principle that all judicious investors will cherish. And, in spite of the German example, a sound Government security has the signal merit of being based on the wealth and tax-paying capacity of a whole nation. As long as the service of the debt, plus the essential expenditure of administration (which is really the first charge of every nation's revenue) appears, from such guesses as one can make, to be well within the tax-payers' shearing capacity, the securities of a Government that has always been honest, as Governments go, and has little or no foreign debt, are the safest investment, in the matter of certainty of income, that an investor can have.
To an Englishman the securities of his own Government undoubtedly possess these qualities, and an English investor will therefore construct, with British Government securities, that solid foundation of security which is the basis on which a well-considered collection of investments ought to stand, except for those who are rich enough to afford to hold nothing but venturesome investments.
When that foundation has been well and truly laid, so that all risk of penury, for himself and his dependents, has been fenced
