wool of Australia and of the wheat of the Argentine
if she can establish even a limited economic dominion over adjoining
countries. It is the lack of a sufficient home market that forces
Germany to dump her goods on Switzerland and Belgium just as it forces
England to sell largely to her colonies and to invest in backward
countries.

How far this policy of industrial invasion can safely go is one of the
interesting international problems of the future. It is of course not
the desire of any country to sell permanently below cost to the
foreigner, since such a policy means, if not actual loss, at least a
diminution of profits.[7] Germany would prefer to get the same price
for her girders in England and Italy as she does at home. But she must
take what she can get. Her industry is based upon a productiveness in
excess of the demands of the home market, and she is under the
necessity of paying for large importations of food and raw material and
of profitably employing increasing numbers of workmen. Her industrial
invasion of neighbouring countries is alternative and supplementary to
an attempt to secure a {124} needed colonial market. It is,
parenthetically, a necessity imposed upon an industrial nation menaced
by a constantly growing population.

Be this policy of invasion ever so well organised, however, it cannot
escape inherent limitations and obstacles. The German export policy
maintained itself only by holding up prices at home, which meant an
increased cost of living and a rise in money wages. The imposition of
tariffs by neighbouring countries meant an increase in the difficulties
to be overcome in exportation and a reduction in the net profits of the
foreign trade. To a considerable extent this export of cheapened goods
was at the mercy of the importing nations, which, at any moment, might
levy prohibitory duties. At the best the whole development led to
strong opposition and prejudice, to counter-attacks, to the violation
of favouring commercial treaties and to the imposition of punitive
duties (as in the Canadian tariff) especially aimed at dumpings. In
the opinion of many observers, the policy provided an insecure base for
a top-heavy industry, with the result that in Germany industrial crises
were frequent and destructive and the economic development showed the
weaknesses of a forced growth.

It is too early to pass judgment upon the relative success or failure
of this industrial invasion. Prof.