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134 whereas the French peasant in 1789 could only keep a tiny portion of his net savings for himself after discharging his feudal dues, in 1800 that condition was precisely reversed. But as the appetite is thus whetted, this struggle for redistribution, it may be argued, merges into one for wresting more opportunities of wealth from neighbouring powers, thus providing the root of innumerable rivalries among the nations. As Bismarck said, "the war of the future will be the economic war, the struggle for existence on the largest scale. May my successor always bear this in mind, and always take care that Germany will be prepared when this battle has to be fought."

An apposite instance of how such a conflict might arise may be drawn from Bismarck's own country. Economically, Germany labours under a disadvantage. Her fields of coal and iron, and therefore her main industrial centres, lie far from the sea. But this defect is remedied by the fact that, Saxony apart, those centres lie on, or near, the Rhine and its tributaries, so that thus the major part of her exports are carried abroad by an easy and cheap transit. As against this, however, the lower course of that river is possessed by Holland, who thus takes toll of her neighbour, and German writers are not slow to point out the advantage to the fatherland of possessing the estuary of the Rhine. In the words of Treitschke, "the very part of the Rhine which is materially most valuable to us has fallen into the hands of