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 su 
premacy 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 King 
dom an excellent opportunity to capture the 
export and import trade of Germany and Aus 
tria-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 produc 
tive possibilities; 
The war in Europe developed the most re 
markable business situation for the United