ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature and the causes of the present depression of trade. It traces the background of the depression and the broad conditions amid which it was generated. 1914 is the beginning of our epoch. 1929 to 1933 are the years of the Great Depression. Clearly, if the forces making for prosperity were to slacken, the ensuing depression was likely to be a depression of more than usual severity. The external conditions of economic activity were in process of continual alteration. By the middle of 1929, the evidences of serious weakening in that part of the world were unmistakeable. In certain raw material producing centres, too, there were signs of weakness quite early in the summer. But the main tide of American speculation continued to flow with undiminished strength until the autumn. In New York there was a sympathetic movement.
