ABSTRACT
In 1914 the total amount of foreign investments of the French Republic was estimated at about £1,600 millions. It is, however, not easy to get a clear idea of the area of the distribution of these investments. In some countries it is possible to know the amount of French capital invested fairly accurately. Coming now to Germany, Mr. J. M. Keynes gives the total German foreign investments before the war at between £1,000 and £1,250 millions. Of this, Keynes, quoting a census of the Austrian Ministry of Finance in 1912, puts the German investments in Austria-Hungary at £197 millions. Ever since the occupation of Egypt, British influence in Constantinople had been gradually on the decline. Syria was to be regarded as a French sphere for railways and the Deutsche Bank was to buy up the 70 million franc shares of the Imperial Ottoman Bank in the Bagdad Railway.
