266 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
to a small extent also in Bank of France notes. Bank notes were 
turned over to Germany to the limit permitted (125 millions). 
Coin was turned over to the amount of something over 600 millions. 
The remainder was handed to Germany in the form of bills of 
exchange — 4,248 millions in all, by far the largest part of the 
required total. 
The operations by which France acquired the bills were of the 
most extraordinary character. Every banking house in Europe 
was induced to participate. The French Government opened 
offices of its own in London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, 
Frankfurt, Berlin. Not less than 120,000 separate bills of ex- 
change were bought, were marshalled so as to conform to the 
stipulated dates for instalment payments, and were finally handed 
over to Germany. The French genius for the orderly conduct of 
great transactions never shone more brilliantly. 
Whence, now, came this great volume of bills of exchange ? 
Not from a surplus of exports over imports — not as the result of 
the sale of French goods to Germany or other countries. True, the 
merchandise movements showed effects from the indemnity oper- 
ations. For a year or two the usual current of France's trade was 
reversed. The excess of imports over exports which had character- 
ized it for so many years was replaced for a short time by an excess 
of exports. During 1872 and 1873 French exports were greater 
than the imports by about 200 millions of francs for each year. 
But after 1873 the previous merchandise relation again appeared 
with hardly an exception; imports again exceeded exports. 
France paid the indemnity only to a small extent in goods ; just as 
she paid it only to a small extent in coin or in Bank of France notes. 
The one adequate resource was the great mass of accumulated 
French investments in foreign countries. These investments 
existed chiefly in the form of foreign securities held by Frenchmen. 
It was their sale that supplied most of the funds for the great loans 
and for the bills of exchange, the funds both for the domestic and 
the foreign tasks. This resource was not utilized deliberately, in 
the sense that the officials in charge consciously turned to it. Tt 
was thru an indirect process, and apparently one not expected, that