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 to turn out as much of these articles as its available resources allowed. There was no question of turning out too much or of not finding a buyer at a price that would repay the capital and energy put into the work, and so nearly all the difficulties which call for skill, experience, judgment and courage in ordinary industry were eliminated for it. Any manufacturer who was told that he had a certain market for the whole amount of any particular product that he could turn out, and could call upon the whole resources of the nation to provide him with raw material and labour, could bring down the price of it to an astonishing extent without loss.

But after all, all these arguments from what happened during the war have to be used with great caution, because the whole state of affairs was artificial. Extreme urgency was the cause and justification of much extravagance that seemed to be appalling, while on the other hand the spirit of the nation and the eagerness of all classes to meet the crisis put advantages into the hands of the Government of which it might have been expected to have made much more profitable use. Many pages could be covered with a record of the blunders and absurdities