ABSTRACT
The period following a great European war has normally been one of acute dislocation. The territorial settlement must be made by the representatives of exhausted nations, embittered by suffering. Democracies, particularly, pass through an ugly mood in the first years of peace. Political and international confusion are well-nigh inevitable. The economic life of peace must be resumed, not at the point or in the circumstances it was abandoned, but in much more difficult times—with the great apparatus of war cumbering the land. The sudden contraction of buying by a large purchaser is bound to produce a deflationary movement in any economy. Total expenditure can be sustained by the maintenance of high rates of monetary investment within the socialised sector. In the mud of Flanders, in the choking waters of the sea, and in the fierce combat of the air, men are laying down their lives.
