has not yet succeeded in uniting _them_; but the exhortation
addressed to them by Marx has been obeyed instead by the capitalists.]

Sec. 5

The greater the Capital, the greater the War Profit?

The over-production in modern industrial states, from which Trade can
only be saved by some such catastrophic remedy as war, may be attributed
not only to the tyranny of machines, but also to the financial jugglery
known as over-capitalisation. If it could be shown that
over-capitalisation were a consequence of national wealth it would
follow that the richer nations would enjoy a greater benefit from war
than their poorer neighbours. But this will only be true if we do not
measure national wealth by the average wealth of every citizen; if we
speak in this case of national wealth quite apart from any question of
its equitable distribution, and are careful to distinguish it from
national welfare; a wealthy nation in this case would have to mean a
nation blessed with a class of wealthy capitalists, or supporting a
large parasitic colony of the persons described as financiers; and such
a nation would have as a corollary to be blessed with a class of workers
disproportionately large and disproportionately poor. For if industrial
conditions are fair over-production is impossible.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 47: Here, for instance, is an illuminating sentence from a
private report on Greek trade during the Balkan Wars: "I commercianti
Greci hanno guadagnato molto durante la guerra, perche hanno venduto
tutte le merci che avevano in deposito a prezzi molto piu alti, che la
gente era obbligata di comperare a cagione che non potevano importare
merci straniere."]

Sec. 6

The Blessings of Invasion

If war is regarded primarily as a commercial stimulant, we might carry
the argument farther and conclude that invasion and even ravage are
actually beneficial to the trade of a country that suffers them; for
ultimately they must make way for a direct demand on the spot for the
primary commodities of life. Houses, fences, roads, factories will all
have to be replaced. It is obvious that the war will have to be followed
by a time of rebuilding.[48] It might be urged that such a phase of
convalescence would be retarded or altogether prevented by the lack of
private capital for such an enormous enterprise. But private capital,
thanks to the credit system, is practically inexhaustible so long as it
is required for a genuinely productive pur