ABSTRACT
Like every other individual phenomenon, a given depression can only be explained by many factors, the number of which depends on the accuracy desired and, therefore, is indefinitely large. The depression which would have been due anyhow, but which might have been brought home to the nations concerned by no more serious symptoms than decreasing rates of increase, has been and still is under the influence of outside factors, some of which have helped to bring it about while others merely intensified it or made adaptation and recovery more difficult. Especially in England, depression is undoubtedly partly due to the policy which culminated in the gold standard act, which for various reasons has taken some time to evolve its full effects. There are wide strata of industry in all countries which in a depression as severe as the present one would not borrow even if credit were offered to them for nothing.
