530 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
beneficial in proportion as they are negotiable, and it is stock 
exchanges which confer this quality of negotiability on securi- 
ties. The world’s stock exchanges as truly furnish warehous- 
ing facilities and points of arrival and departure for securities 
internationally dealt in, as do the great ports and storehouses 
for the “visible trade.” Without stock exchanges, the shifting 
of securities from one nation to another would not readily 
occur. Apart from their vast domestic economic services, 
therefore, stock exchanges would still amply justify their ex- 
istence simply for the invaluable services which they perform 
in respect to foreign trade. And true as this is in times of war 
and national peril, it is even more profoundly true in times 
of peace. 
Dangers of Foreign Investment From the foregoing 
summary of the potential benefits of foreign security invest- 
ment, the conclusion must not be drawn that such benefits are 
inevitable, or that there are not also potential dangers in the 
process which also deserve careful consideration. 
The first of these dangers may be referred to briefly as the 
development on the part of the lending nation, of an “im- 
perialistic”’ attitude toward debtor countries. It can scarcely 
be denied that this has occasionally happened with the old 
creditor nations of Europe. Politics and finance have always 
gone hand in hand onsthe Continent, and tendencies toward 
a similar situation might be cited even in the past history of 
Great Britain. Cases have occurred where the creditor na- 
tion’s navy has been pressed into service to collect, or attempt 
to collect, defaulted bond coupons. Illogical political alliances 
have sometimes been formed on the basis of a creditor-debtor 
relationship. If our new financial creditor nation is to possess 
in this respect a less “imperialistic” record than those of older 
creditor countries, it will be due not so much to any superior 
moral character on our part, but to sound underwriting prin- 
ciples. lack of government interference in finance, and an