THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECT 27

large blocks of European promises to pay, is as clear
as noonday; but whether when the war is over
New York will care to be bothered much with
problems of international finance remains to be seen.
In the first place, the claims of her own country upon
her financial resources will be insatiable and im-
perative. In the second place, the business of
international finance is carried out on very finely
cut terms ; and the Americans being accustomed to
the fat rates of profit which business at home has
given them may not care to devote much attention
to the international market, in which the risks are
big, the turnover is enormous and the profits very
finely cut. It has been remarked by a shrewd
observer that the Americans will never do business
for a thirty-second.

In the third place, it must be remembered that
the geographical position of London is more favour-
able than that of New York as a world centre, as
the world is at present constituted. England,
anchored off the coast of Europe, is clearly marked as
the depot for the entrepot trade of the Old and New
Worlds. New York is clearly marked as the centre
for the trade of the Western hemisphere, and it is
likely enough that New York and London, acting
together as the financial chiefs of the two hemi-
spheres, may be gradually united into what is
practically one market by the growing ties of mutual
interest.

With regard to the position of other possible
rivals to London's position, it need only be said that
they have certainly been weakened much more