26 LONDON'S FINANCIAL POSITION

American banks and houses in dollars instead of on
English bapks and houses in sterling.

Apart from this development, which would have
happened in any case, it remains to be seen how far
New York will be in a position to act as .a rival of
London as the world's financial centre. The internal
resources and potentialities of America are so
enormous, and there is such a vast amount of work
to be done in developing them and bringing them to
full fruition, that it does not at all follow that
America will yet be inclined to take the position in
international trade and finance which will one day
surely be hers, when she has done all the work that
is waiting to be done in her own back premises.

America has a new banking and monetary
system on trial which has met the difficult problems
of the war with great success. These problems,
however, are not nearly as complicated and various
as those which are likely to arise in time of peace.
When a nation is turning out an enormous amount
of goods for which the rest of the world is prepared
to pay any price, her finance is a comparatively
simple business. Evea now, when America has
assumed the duty of financing a large number of
Allies impoverished by three years of war which
have been enriching her, she is still simplifying the
problem by restricting her advances to the payment
for goods bought in America.

That New York will be greatly strengthened by
the war, which has brought masses of American
securities back to the country of origin and has put
into the hands of American bankers and investors