272 INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
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Rf 
this way, is not to be ascertained. For the purposes of the present 
inquiry, fortunately, statistical precision or even approximation 
is unnecessary. It is clear that during the years 1872 and 1873 
substantial amounts of gold left France. That country had had 
just the opposite experience in the previous decade ; then there was 
an inflow of specie, not an outflow. After the exceptional years 
1872 and 1873, the inflow again set in, being indeed the normal 
trend for France under her general economic conditions. Germany 
appears to have had an inflow of specie thruout the decade — and 
practically all of it was gold, tho in what amounts, over and above 
those which the Government Treasury received directly from 
France, cannot be stated with exactness. 
What does appear clearly, however, and is the essential thing to 
be brought out for our purpose, is that the circulating medium in 
Germany was greatly swelled. Between 1871 and 1873 a large 
amount of the new gold coin was added, while practically nothing of 
the old silver was withdrawn. The fiduciary paper (government 
issues and uncovered bank-notes) was also substantially increased. 
The total money in circulation increased in the three years by fifty 
per cent; in round numbers from a trifle under 2000 to full 3000 
marks.! So sudden an increase, coming at a time when all the other 
conditions for expansion were present, naturally resulted in a sharp 
rise of prices and in a speculative orgy which culminated in the 
crisis of 1873. Then there was a check; yet soon a resumption of 
the upward movement. Thru the greater part of the decade gold 
continued to flow into Germany. Imports also continued to flow 
in, and there was a marked excess of imports over exports. Ger- 
many got both gold and goods; got something in a sudden burst 
during the immediate period of the indemnity payments, but 
much more in an almost continuous stream for many years there- 
after. 
It is this last-mentioned course of events — the continuous 
movement of goods and money toward Germany thru the decade 
following 1871 — that is of most interest as regards the general 
problems of international trade. What it indicates is that, whereas 
1 These are the figures of Soetbeer, Deutsche Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 50.