or the English!"

All this new trade expansion cannot be achieved without the real sinew
of war, which is capital. Here, too, England is awake to the emergency.
Typical of her plan of campaign is the projected British Trade Bank,
which will provide facilities for oversea commercial development, and
which will not conflict with the work ordinarily done by the
joint-stock, colonial and British foreign banks. It will do for British
foreign trade what the huge German combinations of capital did so long
and so effectively for Teuton commerce. Furthermore, it will make a
close corporation of finance and trade, with the government sitting in
the board of directors and lending all the aid that imperial support can
bestow.

The bank will be capitalised at fifty million dollars. It will not
accept deposits subject to call at short notice, which means constant
mobilisation of resources; it will open accounts only with those who
propose to make use of its oversea machinery; it will specialise in
credits for clients abroad, and it will become the centre of syndicate
operations. One of its chief purposes, I might add, will be to enable
the British manufacturer and exporter to assume profitably the long
credits so much desired in foreign trade.

From the confidential report of its organisation let me quote one
illuminating paragraph which is full of suggestion for American banking,
for it shows the new idea of British preparedness for world business.
Here it is:

"Nearly as important as the Board would be the General Staff. It is fair
to assume that women will in the future take a considerable share in
purely clerical work, and this fact will enable the institution to take
fuller advantage of the qualifications of its male staff to push its
affairs in every quarter of the globe. Youths should not be engaged
without a language qualification, and after a few years' training they
should be sent abroad. It could probably be arranged that associated
banks abroad would agree to employ at each of their principal branches
one of the Institution's clerks, not necessarily to remain there for an
indefinite period, but to get a knowledge of the trade and
characteristics of the country. Such clerks might in many cases sever
their connection with the banks to which they were appointed and start
in business on their own account. They would, however, probably look
upon the institution as their 'Alma Mater,' Every endeavour should be
made to prom