Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/114

 adequate account of the economic inequality of nations, in regard to the resources of the country or of colonies under their control, as a source of discord and strife. This view I set forth at some length in my book Towards International Government, published in the summer of 1915. The pressure exercised by important industrial, commercial, and financial interests in “capitalist” countries upon their Governments to obtain foreign markets for their surplus products and foreign areas of development for their surplus capital, has played a predominant part in that process of imperialism which is an increasing source of conflict between the “haves” and the “have not” nations. Though countries like Germany, entering late upon the capitalist system, long viewed with jealous eyes the huge empire, a quarter of the habitable globe, held by Britain under the titles of Empire, Dominions, Colonies, Protectorates, and spheres of influence, this envy was kept within pacific bounds so long as free and equal access to its markets was maintained. But as soon as the Dominions set restrictions on their markets and upon immigration, while the War converted the whole Empire into a preferential preserve, beginning the cancelment of our Free Trade policy, the division between the “haves” and the “have nots” came into clear consciousness as a lasting cause of discord.

No International Council, such as was proposed,