Readings in the Economics of War Author:John Maurice Clark General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1918 Original Publisher: The University of Chicago Press Subjects: World War, 1914-1918 War Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you g... more »et free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: IV. Commercial Rivalry and Special Interests 1. DIMINISHING CAUSES OF HOSTILITY' Alongside of the optimistic view that increasing foreign trade is a force making for world-peace, we must place the pessimistic view that all modern wars are essentially commercial, and that war is, in fact, an inevitable concomitant of trade expansion. The latter view appears, indeed, to have the better support from history. If we wish to understand the relation between foreign commerce and war, we must inquire first of all whether we are justified in treating commerce purely in quantitative terms. Foreign trade manifests a wide variety, both in the objects that enter into it and in the circumstances under which it is conducted. In either respect it undergoes marked changes from generation to generation -- changes that a purely quantitative study does not reveal. And even a very superficial examination of international relations indicates that it is the character rather than the quantity of trade that bears upon the question of war or peace. England and Germany compete in the export of textiles to the United States; the trade is an important one, yet it is never enumerated among the causes of the alleged hostility existing between the two nations. Both countries are competitors in the purchase of American cotton, but this competition excites no international animosity whatever. For a number of years Canadian competition in the supplying of wheat to the British market has threatened to confine our own wheat growers to the national ...« less