ABSTRACT
Our purpose is to bring to actual life the theoretical structure developed in Chapters II to V by applying it to the statistical data for the interwar period. We apply it to as many countries as we can, using all available statistical data. The width of coverage thus obtained is useful for various purposes. In the first place, if the theoretical coefficients are worth knowing for one country, they are worth knowing for any country for which they can be found. Secondly, since our system is a “world system”, coefficients for as nearly as possible all countries are required in order to make it reasonably complete. Thirdly, the attempt to apply the theory to the data of countries with widely different economic conditions may bring out sharply for only a few countries (perhaps only for one) an interesting complication which would deserve consideration in the case of all countries. And, finally, since many of the coefficients are, inevitably, imprecise, more confidence can be had in the general order of magnitude of the values found for many countries than in the actual values found for a few. One of the main results of our measurements, the damping of the world system, represents a weighted average of all ρ’s and is, therefore, relatively less uncertain than the individual ρ’s which make up the average.
