German business and German aggression.

German Business

AND

German Aggression

T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.,
I, ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON.

I9I7.
FKICE TWOPENCE.

Walter Clinton Jackson Library

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Special Collections & Rare Books

World War I Pamphlet Collection

German Business

AND

German Aggression

T. FISHER UN WIN, LTD.,
1 ADELPHI TERRACE. LONDON.

1917.

^^c.

CONTENTS.

Page
Intioductory ... ... ... ... ... ••• i

(i) The Men of War and the Men of Peace... 4

(2) The German Banks ... ... ... 6

(3) The State and Transport 11

(4) German Subsidiary Companies 14

(5) German Business and the Foreign Press ... 15

(6) Naturalization and Espionage 18

(7) The Passion for Conquest 20

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http://www.archive.org/details/germanbusinessgeOOunse

German Business and
German Aggression

INTRODUCTORY.

Among the many things revealed by the war, one
of the more important is what miay be called the
omnipresence of the German. Other nations, both
those now belligerent and those now neutral, have
suddenly discovered that German influence played a
much larger part in their economic life than had been
thought possible. As a consequence many wild state-
ments have been made, and the slumber of many
peaceful foll^ has been rudely disturbed by night-
mares of the most violent kind. Business men, how-
ever, are not in the habit of accepting statements
without properly tcsllnpf them, nor are they prepared,
without evidence, to believe that every one of those
Germans with whom they may have rubbed shoulders
in the past was a double d^^ed villain, But enougJ'

2 German Business and GEaMAisr Aggressioin.

has been seen and said to rouse legitimate doubt in
the business communities of many lands as to whether
German business methods are compatible with the
economic development of the world as a whole, and
it is with these doubts that the present writer is here
concerned.

There are two things that must be pointed out.
First, that natives of England, the traditional home of
exiles from all foreign lands, are not naturally pre-
judiced against the foreigner in their midst, nor is
it the English w-ay to object to the immigration of
natives of other countries for business or political
reasons. Second, that it is important to distinguish
between legitimate economic expansion and illegiti-
mate politico-economic expansion. We all of us
desire sufF.ciency — enough clothes and food and
shelter and leisure for the development of ourselves
and our children, that " necessary equipment of
external goods " without which the old Greek phil-
osopher denied that a full life could be lived. We
desire this for ourselves and we respect the desire
in others. Therefore we cannot reasonably object to
the Germans because they are energetic in pushing
their business all over the world. What we in com-
mon with the rest of the world would find intolerable
is that sort of business expansion which aims not at
legitimate profits, but, in part at least, at making
itself the instrument of an aggressive foreign policy.
If we find that German economic expansion bears this
character we are justified in c. /jcting to it, whether
in our own country or in anotlicr. For expansion of
this sort is not compatible with the best interests of
the world as a whole and of international relations.

German Business and German Aggression. 3

Moreover, the present is a time when the matter
has acquired particular importance. For the Ger-
man pubHcists are talking of nothing more than the
unaggressive character of German poli(\v, and how
peace on terms suggested by Germany would be the
signal for economic recovery, and for an ideal de-
velopment of international relations, 'lake, for in-
stance, Herr Maximilien HardtMi, the journalistic
repository of the Bismarck tradition. Who could
be more emphatic than he now^ is that Germany seeks
no conquests, territorial or economic? Yet on Octo-
ber 17th, 1914, when the full effect of the Battle of
the Marne was perhaps not yet realised in Germany,
he wrote as follows in regard to Belgium. " A noble-
Germanism must here conquer new provinces
Antw^erp not opposed to, but in conjunction with
Hamburg and Bremen ; Liege alongside of the muni-
tion works of Hesse and Berlin; Cockerill allied with
Krupp; Belgian iron, coal and tissues under one
management. . . . From Calais to Antwerp,
Flanders, Limburg and Brabant, right beyond the
line of the Meuse fortresses: all Prussian." If we
are to pay attention to what such folk are writing
now, we must remember also what they wrote when
victory seemed within their grasp. And if we find
adequate grounds for believing that German econ-
omic expansion is guided by the will to promote such
political ideas as these, we, the business men of coun-
tries outside Germany, shall be forced to accept the
opinion that German economic growth has to be
regarded quite differently from the growth of any
normal type of business. We shall even be bound
to place obstacles in its way. For, whatever tern-

4 Germax Busixess and German Aggression.

porary profits mav be made out of war by certain
classes, business prosperity is based on plentiful,
production, rapid communication, and freedom from
political disturbance. None of these conditions is
satisfied by war or by a state of " Peace " in which
one country is promoting political strife and violent
change by politico-economic means.

The Men of A\'ati and the Men of Peace.

Such are the doubts with which the business com-
munity the world over is confronted when it thinks
about German expansion. Let us consider on what
these doubts are based. They are based first of all
on what the world in general knows of the organisa-
tion of societv in Germany, an organisation in which
industry and finance are more closely allied with the
machinery of Government than in any other impor-
tant country. " The Flag follow^s Trade," said Bis-
marck, who was the architect of aggression in econ-
omic as in political matters, " the inaugurator of
international policy in financial spheres," as a Ger-
man banker called him. From the Emperor down-
ward all the political forces of Germany have long
been concentrated on the support of German industry.
Is it reasonable to suppose that German industry
gives nothing in return to the soldiers and land-
owners who thus go out of their way to support if^
The Kaiser numbers among his intimates the leaders
of German industry, for example, Rathenau of the
Allgemeine Elektrische Gesellschaft and Ballin of the
Hamburg- Amerika Line, the same Ballin who became
for a moment his master's official representative in

German Busiisess axd German Aggressiox. 5

the correspondence iniliated by him at the outbreak
of the present \\ar with one of the proprietors of the
London "Times." Moreover, mihtary leaders have
vied w ith tiie leaders of industry in proclaiming that
the expansion of German economic interests abroad
represents an actual addition to the German Empire.
As the Kaiser himself said to some of his subjects in
1896, "Thousands of your fellow countrymen are
living in all parts of the world; German wares, Ger-
man knowledge, German business energy traverse
the ocean. The earnest duty, then, devolves upon
you to form a strong link with this greater Empire,
binding it to the Empire at home." Germany is the
home of the scientific tariff, of the Kartell, and of
systematic over-production for the export trade. Its
recent nationality legislation, which is referred to
later, accounts for the suspicion wdiich meets the
German clerk, who is to be found all over the world
wording with abnormal energy for a small salarv.
When in the Spring of 1915 Germany lirst became
doubtful of her military prospects and a party arose
which opposed the annexation of Belgium, it was the
six great economic unions that stood up (whether
at the Government's instigation or not cannot be
stated with certainty) to advocate annexation, indem-
nities, and the full policy of blood and iron. These
facts are so far from being denied that the close con-
nection of German industry with the German Govern-
ment is a matter of self-congratulation in Germany.
All these things may be in themselves politically
harmless to the rights of other nations ; they are
only touched on here to suggest the atmosphere with
which German expansion has surroimded itself. One

6 German Business and German Aggression.

may then proceed to consider the working of the Ger-
man system with detailed reference to certain branches
of industry and finance.

The German Banks.

There falls to be considered first Germany's finan-
cial system as embodied in its banks. It is well
known that each big German bank combines in itself
functions w'hich in other countries are divided be-
tween many different institutions. Thus in England
a manufacturer will keep his pri\ate account, with a
deposit balance to his credit, in one bank; another
bank will keep the account of his business and
advance money to it for short periods. \Mien he
wants to raise money by the sale of bills of exchange,
he may go to a discount house, specialists in this
work, and these same bills of exchange will have
been created by arrangement with an accepting
house. When he wants to buy or sell stocks or
bonds he will deal with a stockbroker; when he wants
to sell his business to the public by turning it into
a company he will go to an issuing house. In Ger-
many all these services will be rendered to him by
one bank; which in return will demand a certain
amount of control over his operations. And we find
in fact that this control is very strong. Its existence
is so obvious that it is perhaps unnecessary to dwell
on it. In 1911, for instance, the Deutsche Bank
alone was directlv represented on the boards of 114
different companies, including such important enter-
prises as "Siemens and Halske, " the "Deutsche
uberseeische Elektrizitatsgesellschaft " and the

German Business and German Aggression. 7

" Norddeutscher Lloyd." The whole German
banking system seems to aim, abroad even more
than at home, at the domination and control of
industry rather than at making legitimate profits by
furnishing facilities at a fair price. Compare, as an
example, the capital and deposits of German banks
with those of English banks. In the table below
the figures are given for the six principal banks of
each country on December 31st, 1913 — before the
beginning of war made statistics unreliable: —

6 English Banks. 6 German Banks.

Capital and Reserves £39,000,000 £74,500,000

Deposits £457,000,000 £244,000,000

The proportionately higher amount of capital and
reserves in the case of the German banks confirms
the popular impression that they aim at being able
to sink large sums for long periods in new enter-
prises, in return for which they obtain closer con-
trol than their English or French rivals over the
whole working of the business. It is this policy which
explains, for instance, the Deutsche Bank's participa-
tion in the Bagdad Railway enterprise, concerning
Avhich the German publicist, Rohrbach, wrote in
1902 with characteristic modesty that it " had an
undoubted political object." Compare again the
German bankers' r=iethod of " participation " in
industry with the English method of financing
foreign trade. The German banks having decided
to develop trade in a certain area, provide the
favoured industry with a certain amount of capital.
They are therefore represented on the Board of Direc-
tors. Even though a large part of the capital is
in the hands of natives of the country where the

8 German Business and German Aggression.

business is situated, Germans maintain the control
of the management. The German bank is interested
already, either alone or in consort with other banks,
in various German Kartells. By its control of the
new business which it has helped to establish abroad,
it is enabled to force the product of these Kartells
upon this business. Thus the establishment of a new
enterprise abroad with the aid of German money
means in practice that the natives of the country so
favoured help to flood their own market with German
goods at the expense of their fellow countrym.en manu-
facturing those goods. A merchant or manufacturer
abroad who seeks financial facilities in England has
usually a different experience. Perhaps he approaches
an English accepting house. The latter, satisfied as
to his standing, agrees to "accept" bills drawn
by him on them against shipment of goods and the
usual certificates of insurance and bills of lading.
The bill of exchange on London so created becomes
a negotiable instrument anywhere in the world, and
can be sold by the merchant or manufacturer to pro-
vide funds for wages, materials, etc. When the
goods are sold he has funds in hand again to pay the
accepting house, which has agreed by "accepting"
it to pay his bill. And so long as he has genuine
business to do he can reasonably count on the main-
tenance of these facilities.

This is clearly a method of financing himself of
which the trader in any country can take advantage
without fear either of losing control of his own busi-
ness or of damaging his country's interests. The
German system, on the other hand, has both these
disadvantages, and it is by comparison with the

German Business and German Aggression. 9

English method that one is helped to see the aggres-
sive character of German iinance and the perils which
its growth involves to the native industries of such
countries as Switzerland and vSouth America. In-
stances are not hard to find. In Switzerland and
Italy are, or were, to be found many companies for
w hich the bulk of the monev had been provided in the
form of bonds or debentures by the Italians or the
Swiss, but where the ordinary capital, which alone
carries the voting power and therefore the control of
the directors and m.anagemcnt, is in the hands of
Germans. Either they hold the majoritv of (he shares
or hold a sufificlently solid block to outvote anv other
particular element of the shareholders.

This was the position in regard to the mining com-
panies of the Briey area, to which French capital
had principally contributed. This was also the case
of Societe Anonyme pour ITndustrie de 1' Aluminium
of Xeuchatel, eight out of ^hose fifteen directors were
German, and of the Banque des Chemins de Per Orien-
taux, half of whose directors were also German. Take
again an example of the same principle rather differ-
ently Avorked in the case of Banca Commerciale
Ttaliana. In 1895 Austrians and Germans held
29,000 shares of this bank, the Italians under 7,000,
and the Swiss a similar amount. In 1914, the capital
having been meanwhile increased, the shares owned
bv Austro-Germans amounted on]\- to 7,400 against
195,000 owned by Italians, 04,000 by Swiss, and
42,000 by French citizens. Yet the directorate of the
bank, formed under German influence when German
capital still predominated, changed hardlv at all in
regard to the nationality of its members during this

lo German Business and German Aggression.

period, and ihe management also remained predom-
inately German right up to the time of the present
war.

There will be found below further instances of the
German method of obtaining control over business
abroad. But it would at any rate seem clear: First,
that German banks play a more important part in the
direction of German industry than those of other
countries. Secondly, that German banks are so
organised as to obtain the maximum amount of con-
trol over industries abroad, even though much of the
capital of these industries may not be German. Ger-
man finance is thus sharply distinguished from that
of England and France, of which the chief character-
istic is the employment of savings, which cannot find
investment at home, in investments abroad. These
investments are made not with the idea of controlling
this or crushing that, but of employing money at a
good rate of interest in countries where capital is rela-
tively scarce. As for the relations between the Ger-
man banks and the German Government, they are
not of a kind that readily seeks the light of day, but
one may quote one illuminating statement. It is an
extract from the evidence given in 1907 by Ober-
finanzrat Waldemar Miiller, a director of the Dresd-
ner Bank, before the American National Monetary
Commission, presided over by Mr. Nelson W. Aid-
rich. " The Foreign Office," says Herr Miiller, "has
frequentlv stimulated the German Banks to enter into
competition for Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish,
Roumanian, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese and South
American loans. Even when the banks are ap-
proached from other quarters the first move made

German Business and German Aggression, i i

is to ask the consent of the Foreign Office for carry-
ing on such negotiations. If the consent is given,
then Ministers, Ambassadors and Consuls frequently
support the representatives of the German banks by
word and deed."

The State and Transtort.

Turning from banking, it will be natural next to
consider German transport and shipping, in order
to see whether these industries also show evidence
of effort made by the German State in conjunction
with private enterprise to obtain by politico-economic
means control over the life of other nations. Take the
railways, which in Germany, as in m.any other coun-
tries, are state-owned. England and America are
the two chief examples of countries where the rail-
way system is in private hands, while in France the
railways are in a state of transition from private tc
•state ownership. But in all three countries the con-
ception of railway business is the same, namely, that
it consists of selling transportation at a fair price foi
buyer and seller. The legislation of the United States
particularly gives evidence of the determination on
the part of the people to see fair play in regard to
-railway rates. The ideal of the management of the
German railway system is very different. It has
been defined as being " inspired by the need to sup-
port certain industries against foreign competition,
•to promote the development of the nation's harbours,
and to allow the cheap importation of certain products
fhat have been adjudged necessary. . . . The
■'German State is a judge between different industries

12 German Business and German Aggression.

and different districts." Herein lies the explanation
of the enormous number of special rates on the Ger-
man railways, which M. Paul Leon estimated in
1903 to affect 63 per cent, of the tonnage carried and
46 per cent, of the freight paid. Similarly the con-
vention relating to the St. Gothard tunnel was used
by Germany as, in effect, a special tariff arrangement
for the protection of German trade in Northern Italy,
even though the goods concerned were transported by
way of Switzerland.

When we remember all these things which are done
by the Prussian State we can see under what obliga-
tion the German exporter lies to his Government when
he comes to sell'his goods abroad. Is it surprising,
then, that foreigners regard the German merchant
as, in part at least, an agent of the political ambi-
tions of his Government ? Even the German mer-
chant marine, which is owned not by the State but
bv private shareholders, serves only to confirm this
unfavourable impression. It is true that the direct
subsidies paid to German shipping companies are
smaller than those paid in Japan or even France.
But by means of the special railway tariff referred to-
above the German Government does all it can to
force through goods traffic to the harbours which
are the headquarters of the German shipping lines.
Also, it has been the practice of the railway admin-
istration, taking advantage of Germany's geographi-
cal situation, to force up freight rates so that, for
example, Russian goods are shipped to France by
German ships from the Baltic ports rather than by
a railway route, from which part of the profits would'
go out of German hands. Again, the profitable emi-

German Business and German Aggression. 13;

grant traffic to America from Eastern Europe has
been diverted by the German State ahiiost wholly
into German ships. When, for instance, the Cunard
Company concluded an agreement for carrying on
emigrant traffic from Hungary with the Hungarian.
Government, which was desirous of freeing its sub-
jects from the grip of the German emigration agent,.
German methods were fully exposed. The Hun-
garian Government was satisfied that the Cunard'
Company had suitable facilities for carrving on the
traffic, and the Company had even recei\ ed a licence
from the German (jovernment to carry on this busi-
ness in Germany. Yet sworn statements showed
clearly that, when Russians and Poles who had'
booked by the Cunard route attempted to cross Ger-
many, they were diverted to German ships by false
statements made by agents of the German com-
panies in the presence, curiously enough, of German
policemen.

Some idea of the value of the trafific which the Ger-
man Government thus ensures to the German ship-
ping companies may be gained from the fact that
when the American crisis of 1907 brought emigra-
tion to a standstill, both the North German Llovd and
the Hamburg-Amerika Line, which had been paying
8 and 10 per cent, dividend respectively, suffered a
serious loss of profits, the latter being forced to reduce
its dividend to 6 per cent, even for the year 1907 itself.
Thus a brief consideration of the German transporta-
tion system affords further evidence of systematic
co-operation between the German Government and'
German industry. And we are compelled again to
ask ourselves whether the German trader who receives

ii4 Geeman Business and German xVggression.

such benefits from his militaristic Government can in
fact be free to refuse his co-operation to any political
schemes which that Government may have in mind.

German Subsidiary Companies.

In referring to the methods of the German banks
it was shown how their expansion abroad did not
bear the signs of a genuine desire to discover fresh
fields for investment, but was marked bv a passion
for obtaining control of the industry and capital of
foreigners. One may now briefly consider some of
the extensions of German industry which have been
made abroad in order to see whether these also have
this characteristic. And in doing so we shall again
have in the back of our minds the thought that the
German, when he reaches his foreign market, already
owes a big debt to the close personal connection be-
tween his warlike and land-ownino- o-overning; class
and the leaders of German industry.

One is not here concerned so much with the direct
export of goods from German v as with the network
of German-controlled companies which are to be
found in so many countries. The common history
of these companies is something like this. Thev are
established with rather a flourish in a foreign country
under German auspices. Either thev are based on a
native industry already existent, or native capital is
subsequently attracted. But care is taken through-
out that the control remains German. It is thus easy
to ensure, after the new industry is firmly established,
that the distribution of profits between the partly
native subsidiary and the wholly German parent com-

German Business and German Acjgression. 15

pany is such that tlie maximum proportion iinds it
wav finally into German pockets. A good example
of this method is the Siemens-Schuckert Company of
Berlin, with its subsidiaries in Milan and elsewhere,
of whose operations a full account was gixen by
Signor ^I. Pantaleoni in the " \'ita Italiana " of
August 15th, 1915, Again, the Allgemeine Eleklrische-
Gesellschaft had, through an intermediary in Zurich,
control over six of the principal electric undertakings
in Italy and of seven in Spain, which supplied, accord-
ing to M. Hauser, 60 per cent, of the electric material
sold in that Peninsula in 1910. The aniline dye-
industry provides evidence to the same effect. So
does the metal industry of Australia, which had
before the war passed so far into German hands as
to make special legislation necessarv to free the Aus-
tralian-owned mines from the restrictive agreements
with which German ingenuitv had limited their power
of selling their products. And behind this armv of
German controlled companies, operating for the
profit of their German mother-companies, stands
always the German State, helping the exporter by
special railway rates and giving him the means,
through a high tariff, of selling his products abroad
below cost price, when any independent rival dares,
to cross the path of the conquering Teuton.

German Business and the Foeeign Press.

Tt will be necessary to consider some aspects of
the working of the Press in Germany, and bv Ger-
mans abroad, for this subject also would appear to
afford evidence of the combination for asreressive-

a 6 German Business and German Aggressions.

purposes of political with economic eiiort, suspicion
of which was the occasion of this being written. It
was Bismarck who reduced the German Press to a
state of complete subservience to the Government.
But it was reserved for a later Chancellor to encourage
"a more delicate and more or less secret organisation."
It was some time in 1913 that a meeting was held in
the Foreign Office in Berlin, at which subscriptions
rof £25,000 a year were promised to a private com-
pany for "furthering German industrial prestige
.abroad." The subscribers included the Deutsche
Bank, the Diskonto-Gesellschaft, North German
Lloyd, Hamburg-Amerika Line, A. E. G., Krupp,
and other leading industrial firms. The subscribers
further agreed to pool the whole of the amounts
spent by them abroad on newspaper advertising,
estimated bv Sir Ed^va^d Goschen at another £25,000
..a year, and hand the amount to the new company.
To this was to be added a Government subsidy of
-at least £12,500 per annum, so that the new com-
pany would from the outset dispose of a revenue
of over £60,000 a year. The whole of this sum
was to be spent bv the company on obtaining what
is called "a good Press" for Germany in South
America and other countries outside Europe. The
new companv would offer a supply of news relating
to German subjects and interests to a foreign paper,
either free or at a ver}^ low rate, on condition that
no information from a competing source or of a con-
tradictory nature were published. If the paper refused
the offer it would immediately lose all advertisements
from any German concern whatever. This particular
•cat was let out of its bap' in an article in the "Deutsche

German Business and German Aggression. 17

Export Revue" of June 5th, 1914, and, thanks to the
independence of the Havas and Reuter Agencies,
the scheme had at least partially failed before the
War broke out, in anticipation of which it had been
formed.

The article in the "Deutsche Export Revue" showed
also that part of the plan was to send German jour-
nalists abroad to further the sclieme, but the Revue
naively added that "the intended despatch of jour-
nalists we believe, however, in any case to be a mis-
take, as it would certainly soon become common talk
in the editorial of^ces in the several places abroad that
they represented a syndicate officially supported by
the German Empire." Needless to say the German
Government was not pleased with the indiscretions of
the "Deutsche Export Revue," and forbade reference
to the article by other newspapers. Without search-
ing for further examples, enough has been said on
the evidence of a German authority to show' the exist-
ence of one more of those queer combinations of poli-
tics and business which are to be found in so many
different divisions of German life. A society with
an initial income of over £60,000 a year, supported
by the State and by " big business, " w'ith the expecta-
tion, as the "Deutsche Export Revue" said, of a fur-
ther increase in income \\hen the scheme was actually
working, was formed in time of perfect peace for forc-
ing on papers abroad by threats and bribery a service
of news which could ne\ er hope to be printed on its
merits. The country which is the home of such pro-
jects hardly seems a desirable neighbour.

1 8 German Business and German Aggression.

Naturalization and Espionage.

Before proceeding to summarise one's observations
on the nature of German economic expansion, there
is one more subject to which reference must be made.
That subject is the character of the individual Ger-
man who comes to other countries as clerics, agents,
or manufacturers. It is an unsavoury subject, for
business men prefer to trust eacli other's personal
honesty rather than not. Moreover, the Germans
who left their country before 1870, when the German
Empire was not yet in existence, have in many cases
proved themselves thoroughly loyal citizens of their
adopted country. But since that time there seems
to have been a change in the nature of this German
emigration; the modern emigrant seems to come
forth not to settle but to conquer. The preamble
of the German Nationality Law- of 1913 may perhaps
throw some light on the present outlook of the Ger-
man, naturalised or not, who settles in a foreign
country. This preamble sets forth that " in the con-
ditons of modern international life it is convenient
to give citizens the means of regaining one day the
quality (of citizenship) of which they have provision-
ally deprived themselves." As an American, Mr.
F. W. Wile, wrote in 1906, " Already 500,000 Ger-
man emigrants and their offspring are resident in
Brazil. The great majority of them, it is true, have
embraced Brazilian citizenship, but their ideals and
ties are essentially inviolably German." Similarly
a Belgian, M. Jules Claes, of Antwerp, says that
"the very aim of Societies which group together the
German in foreign lands is not only to keep alive

German Business and Geeman Aggression. iq

the German spirit, but to bring the naturalised within
the German fold." A New York paper wrote on
April 23rd, 1916, that "the President's difficulties
have been increased owing to the fact that the Ger-
mans had organised political pressure." Such is the
atmosphere with which the Germans surround them-
selves when they settle in a country, and there are
many individual instances to confirm this unfavour-
able view which their hosts appear to entertain for
them. It is a matter of history that early in 1916
the efforts of the "Providence Journal" of the State of
Rhode Island revealed to the American public what
the police had already suspected, that is, the exist-
ence of a vast conspiracy of German origin in the
United States. With its details we are not here con-
cerned; it is enough that the principal participants
included not only Boy-ed and Von Papen, attaches
of the German Embassy, who were expelled the coun-
try, but also one Hans Tauscher, agent in the United
States for the Krupp firm. Moreover, the office of
Von Tgel, the go-between in the conspiracy, was
situated in Wall Street, heart of the commercial
quarter of New York City. Here again one sees
the German State and German industry working to-
gether abroad in a combination which the stress of
war had rendered actually criminal. Incidents of
espionage and sabotage by German men of business
in countries at war with their own are perhaps to be
treated with less attention than those which have
taken place like that last mentioned in a neutral State.
Yet it is hard to regard it merely as a coincidence
that both the Eastern frontiers and the Northern
coasts of France were before the war dotted over

20 German Business and German Aggression.

with mines, factories, and other businesses under
German control, and that persons concerned with'
these businesses provided so important a number of
convicted spies. It is a subject, as was said above,
that business men find unpleasant to discuss. But
it cannot, in fact, be denied that the Germr.n busi-
ness community has incurred grave and not un-
founded suspicion of harbouring a number of per-
sons whose real business is political or miliinry
espionage, for which legitimate trade is no more
than a convenient cloak.

The Passion for Conquest.

It may now be well to sum up what one has
observed as the objects and methods of German
economic expansion. We have seen that it was not
based on a desire to find employment for an exces-
sive population, or for the savings of many frugal
years, as has been the case with England and France.
The emigration from the United Kingdom in the
year before war was 4G9,640, that from Germany
22,690. The emigration from France was also small,
but the notorious saving power of the French nation
sufficiently explains the expansion of that country's
foreign interests. We know that German manufac-
turers have organised on an unprecedented scale the
system of dumping, of selling goods too high at home
and too low abroad. We know also that these phen-
omena can be traced only since 1879, which was, in
fact, the year in which Bismarck constructed a tariff
which at last reconciled the interests of the Prussian
landlords with those of the commercial community

German Business and German Aggression. 21

all over Germany. Since that date we have evidence
of the growth of mutual sympathy between these two
naturally antagonistic classes. On the one hand the
War Lord in shining armour, with the bold Branden-
burgers of Frederick the Great; on the other hand,
tlie peaceful traders and manufacturers, who for so
large a part of German history had only asked for
peace between the warring principalities of Central
Europe that they might develop the natural wealth
of the countrv. We have found these two classes
working side by side and gradually amalagamating,
socially and politically. It has been possible to
observe the military and landowning class co-operat-
ing heartily in building up an economic system which
enriches others rather than themselves. But we have
seen no reason for thinking that the military caste
has in fact gone unrewarded, the conclusion being
that their reward has been the support of the German
business community for their schemes of conquest.
If German militarism has learnt something from Ger-
man science and German business, the latter would
also seem to have absorbed some of the Junker ideals
which raised Prussia from a poverty-stricken king-
dom to the leadership of a populous and wealthy
Empire.

We have seen this Empire make war on the little
Kingdom of Belgium, no field for colonisation, but
in density of population the second among civilised
countries. Belgium had always held open the door
— it now appears almost too widely — to the expansion
of German business within its borders. We have
heard the demands of the six great Economic Unions
of Germany that Belgium should be retained under

22 Gejrma.n Cusimss and German AG^iLlEssloN .

the German heel for ever. We know that a great
German shipowner, a personal friend of the Kaiser,
attempted in 1914 to use his personal influence in
England to prevent her from interfering with the
invasion of Belgium, contemplated by his master's
military advisers. We have understood the part
played by the German banks in the economic growth
of their country, and the extent, unparalleled else-
where, to which these banks dominate individual
German industries. Further, we have been informed
out of their own mouths that their policy in regard
to foreign loans is carried out in close co-operation
and consultation with the German Foreign Office.
It is know'n that in such enterprises as the Bagdad
Railway a German bank can become, as it were, an
actual partner of the German Government. We must
believe, for it has never been denied, Sir Edward
Holden's statement, that the Dresdner Bank issued
on July 18th, 1914, a fortnight before war broke
out, a warning to its customers to sell all investments
in view of the approaching fall in prices which the
Bank had reason to expect. A German newspaper
has given us information of an attempt by a league
of German industrialists and merchants to blackmail
the Press of South America and other countries with
the help of the funds of the German Secret Service.
Is it to be wondered at that the accumulation of
this and similar testimony makes one believe that
German economic expansion cannot be dissociated
from the schemes for political control over allies as
w^ell as enemies, of which the events of the present
war have given us examples ? Business men the world
over know how to appreciate enterprise and business

German Business an«d German Aggression. 2J

energy from whatever country thev come. The more
enlightened believe that good comes to all from im-
proved methods of business and from the develop-
ment of new countries. But when business energy,
however genuine, is associated with the desire ta
crush independence in others, and is closely leagued
with the aggressive design of a powerful military
caste, the time has surely come for the civilised world
to assert itself. " This insidious and insinuating
movement of conquest, preparing far ahead conquest
both real and recognised," was how a Frenchman
25 years ago described Germany's politico-economic
expansion. That is the movement against which the
Entente Powers began at last to set their faces in
August, 1914, and that is the movement which busi-
ness men in every country, actuated by honour as
well as interest, will never allow to dominate the
world.

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