FOREIGN  TRADE  3

cial  and  commercial  world.  Her  bankers
and  shippers,  merchants  and  manufacturers,
with  one  accord  grasped  the  opportunity  that
presented  itself  then  and  have  held  the  supremacy ­
  thus  gained  for  more  than  a  century.
Perhaps  it  was  the  recollection  of  what
gave  Great  Britain  her  start  in  this  field
which  led  the  London  Spectator  to  remark,  at
the  outbreak  of  war  in  1914:
“The  present  war  gives  the  United  Kingdom ­
  an  excellent  opportunity  to  capture  the
export  and  import  trade  of  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary.” ­

If  England,  engaged  in  the  most  desperate
and  expensive  war  she  or  the  civilized  world
ever  has  known,  with  her  enormous  resources
taxed  to  their  utmost,  saw  an  “opportunity”
for  trade  expansion,  how  much  greater  is  the
chance  in  this  line  for  an  absolutely  neutral
power,  populated  with  keen  business  men,  and
provided  by  Nature  with  unparalleled  productive ­
  possibilities;
The  war  in  Europe  developed  the  most  remarkable ­
  business  situation  for  the  United