The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1915. AFTER THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 30 November 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1915. AFTER THE WAR.

(With' which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.)

It is claimed by political economists that no period of depression will follow the war. Trades connected with the manufacture of munitions will, of course, suffer, but it is contended that so much will have been destroyed that it will require some years to reconstruct, and during that time there will be ample work for everybody. There will be no lapse in the demand for produce such as this Dominion exports, but after three or four years some economists predict there will be a time of depression. Money has been so eaten up that manufacturers and traders will find a shortage of capital that is going to very much ilmit their operations. There are others who are more optimistic and assert that methods of finance must, and will, be so readjusted as to enable British industries to continue to shut out the “made in Germany” goods. It is well-known that Germany is conducting the war very largely on paper money; she pays for her internally-purchased munitions with paper,, and it is urged that she will be able to rapidly rebuild her lost trade by similar means. What is possible to Germany is also possible to B’ritain, and it is not. at all probable British statesmen will allow the Empire to be subjugated in a commercial war with Germany or with any other country. In an article on the subject the Melbourne Age says that German manufacturers and merchants are looking forward to a period of unexampled prosperity when war ends. They have been told by their statesmen and their newspapers that when the war is over Germany will exact huge indemnities from her defeated enemies. Indemnities that will pay all the costs of war with sufficient for pensions to dependents of fallen soldiers, and to compensate manufacturers and other business men for the losses they have sustained. Shipping companies and exporters are also to be compensated and everybody in Germany will become j enormously rich after the war. The. “Age” says: “This German dream is not. likely to be realised, but. it is of interest to consider what effect the defeat of Germany will have on the revival of German trade after peace is established. It 'might naturally he as-

sinned that tiie German manufacturers Tv ill have tlie greatest difficulty :n reviving their expert trade. While German shipping has been swept from the

ocean, American and British manufac-

turers have had an exceptional oppor-

tunity to capture Germany’s oversea trade, and they have made the most of the opportunity, though British manufacturers have been handicapped by the shortage of labour. B'ut just as Germany’s commercial isolation during the war has stimulated her internal trade and has enabled her to finance the war in a way that was not foreseen —by the issue of paper money to German maufactirrers of war stores and munitions, instead of paying in gold for imported stores and munitions, a s the Allies are doing—so it would seem that her defeat will assist German export trade after the war in an unexpected way. After Germany is de-

feated her paper currency will be debased in foreign exchanges, and foreign merchants will be able to obtain German goods at a much lower rate than they will be able to obtain goods from countries where the standard of the currency is maintained. A foreign merchant will be able to obtain German made goods to the value of 1000 marks on payment of the equivalent of 800 marks in his own currency, if the German mark depreciates 20 per cent. And in the United States the German mark has already depreciated 14 per cent. This cheapness will create a foreign demand for German goods and stimu-

late Germany’s export trade.” The consensus of opinion of political economists bearing on British trade after the war somewhat supports an oft-repeat-ed view expressed in these columns. There is to be a revival of tariff re-

form questions; new industries hove been established in Britain as the result of war for the manufacture of goods previously imported from Germany. and these, it is suggested, are to he saved from destruction by increase of tariff duties. During her isolation German factories have piled up enormous stocks ready to exploit the world dir/ctly peace is declared, and

these are to be allowed, it :s suggested, to be dumped into all parts of the British Empire on payment of a duty, just as a contribution towards Britain’s war bill. At present, thd Age says: “There is a pronounced objection on the part of the British public to German goods of any kind, and those merchants who had stocks of German goods in their warehouses when the war broke out have found it impossible to get rid of them in Great Britain. But this feeling on the part of the British public will gradually fade after the war; British manufacturers place no reliance on it as a means cf keeping German goods out of the country. They place more reliance on the imposition of an import duty; and if this policy is adopted with respect to German goods it will inevitably be extended, and will constitute the first practical step on the part of Great Britain towards the establishment of preferential trade within the Empire.” Britain is to exact no indemnity because Germany will I hav© so much to do in recompensing Belgium, Russia and other nations for damage done by invasion of territory, and all we are to depend upon to ensure trade within the Empire is an uncertain import duty on German-made goods, as it is said to be impracticable to take any other course. In being more frank, it might have been added that shipping monopolies must not be interfered with under any circumstances. Our objections to German-made goods “will fade away,” and the “made in Germany” article will soon he as universally obtrusive in our shops as it was before the war, and our money will he hoarded in Germany in readiness for “the day,” which will merely have been postponed-