The Great Transformation
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- 3. The Snapping of the Golden Thread
- 4. Swings of the Pendulum After World War 1
- 5. Finance and Peace
[ 274 ] Notes on Sources was established which precluded the influence of private business interests on the conduct of foreign affairs; and it is only by the end of this period that chancelleries again consider such claims as admissible but not without stringent qualifications in deference to the new trend of public opinion. We submit that this change was due to the character of trade which, under nineteenth-century conditions, was no longer dependent for its scope and success upon direct power policy; and that the gradual return to business influence on foreign policy was due to the fact that the international currency and credit system had created a new type of business inter- est transcending national frontiers. But as long as this interest was merely that of foreign bondholders, governments were extremely reluctant to allow them any say; for foreign loans were for a long time deemed purely speculative in the strict- est sense of the term; vested income was regularly in home government bonds; no government thought it as worthy of support if its nationals engaged in the most risky job of loaning money to overseas governments of doubtful repute. Canning rejected peremptorily the importunities of investors who expected the British government to take an interest in their foreign losses, and he categorically refused to make the recognition of Latin-American republics dependent upon their ac- knowledgment of foreign debts. Palmerston's famous circular of 1848 is the first intimation of a changed attitude, but the change never went very far; for the busi- ness interests of the trading community were so widely spread that the govern- ment could hardly afford to let any minor vested interest complicate the running of the affairs of a world empire. The resumption of foreign policy interest in busi- ness ventures abroad was mainly the outcome of the passing of free trade and the consequent return to the methods of the eighteenth century. But as trade had now become closely linked with foreign investments of a nonspeculative but entirely normal character, foreign policy reverted to its traditional lines of being service- able to the trading interests of the community. Not this latter fact, but the cessa- tion of such interest during the hiatus stood in need of explanation. T O C H A P T E R T W O 3. The Snapping of the Golden Thread The breakdown of the gold standard was precipitated by the forced stabiliza- tion of the currencies. The spearhead of the stabilization movement was Geneva, which transmitted to the financially weaker states the pressures exerted by the city of London and Wall Street. The first group of states to stabilize was that of the defeated countries, the cur- rencies of which had collapsed after World War I. The second group consisted of the European victorious states who stabilized their own currencies mainly after the first group. The third group consisted of the chief beneficiary of the gold stan- dard interest, the United States. Notes on Sources [275] I. Defeated Countries Russia Austria H u n g a r y G e r m a n y Bulgaria Finland Estonia Greece Poland 1923 1923 1924 1924 1925 1925 1926 1926 1926 The imbalance of the first group was carried for a time by the second. As soon as this second group likewise stabilized its currency, they also were in need of sup- port, which was provided by the third. Ultimately, it was this third group, con- sisting of the United States, which was most hard hit by the cumulative imbalance of European stabilization. 4. Swings of the Pendulum After World War 1 The swing of the pendulum after World War I was general and swift, but its amplitude was small. In the great maj ority of countries of Central and Eastern Eu- rope the period 1918-23 merely brought a conservative restoration following upon a democratic (or socialist) republic, the outcome of defeat; several years later al- most universally one-party governments were established. And again, the move- ment was fairly general. Country Austria Bulgaria Estonia Finland G e r m a n y H u n g a r y Jugoslavia Latvia Lithuania Poland R o m a n i a Revolution Oct. 1928 soc. d e m . republic Oct. 1918 radical agrarian reform 1917 socialist republic Feb. 1917 socialist republic Nov. 1918 soc. d e m . republic Oct. 1918 d e m . rep. Mar. 1919 Soviets 1918 d e m o c r a t i c federation 1917 socialist republic 1917 socialist republic 1919 soc. d e m . republic 1918 agrarian reform Counterrevolution 1920 middle-class republic 1923 fascist c o u n t e r - revolution 1918 middle-class republic 1918 middle-class republic 1920 middle-class republic 1919 c o u n t e r r e v o l u t i o n 1926 a u t h o r i t a r i a n m i l i t a r y state 1918 middle-class republic 1918 middle-class republic 1926 a u t h o r i t a r i a n state 1926 a u t h o r i t a r i a n regime One-party government 1934 1934 1926 — 1933 — 1929 1934 1926 — — 5. Finance and Peace On the political role of international finance in the last half-century hardly any material is available. Corti's book on the Rothschilds covers only the period previ- II. Victorious European Countries III. Universal Lender WENT OFF WENT OFF STABILIZED GOLD GOLD Great Britain 1925 1931 U.S.A. 1933 France 1926 1936 Belgium 1926 1936 Italy 1926 1933 Yüklə 1,51 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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