Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/88



debts as investments are very much the same problem whatever be the country from which they are issued. All over the world the income that is behind them, on which the soundness and value of the security ultimately depend, comes from the taxable capacity of the inhabitants of the area involved, whether the borrower be a Government or a State or a municipality. The only difference is that the difficulty of arriving at anything like an exact estimate of the extent of that taxable capacity—which we found to be considerable at hone—becomes much greater when we have to send our minds on a sea voyage, and try to imagine how the average Pole or Brazilian or Chinaman regards the question of the sanctity of financial contracts entered into by his Government or his municipality. The war showed us that a nation which is ready to pay taxes for a cause that it thinks to be worth the sacrifice can draw on its resources to an extent which would have