WAR-TIME FINANCIAL
PROBLEMS

THE OUTLOOK FOR CAPITAL

, September, 1917

The Creation of Capital—The Inducement—War and Capital

ONE of the questions that are now most keenly
agitating the minds of the investing public and of
financiers who cater for its wants, and also of
employers and organisers of industry who are trying
to see their way into after-the-war conditions, is that
of the supply of capital. On this subject there are
two contradictory theories: one considers that
owing to the destruction of capital during the war,
capital will be for many years at a famine price ; the
other, that owing to the exhaustion of all the warring
powers, that is, of the greater part of the civilised
world, the spirit of enterprise will be almost dead,
the demand for capital will be extremely limited,
and consequently the supply of it on offer will go
begging to find a user. It seems likely that, as
usual, the truth lies somewhere between these two
extreme views \ but we shall best answer the question