Page:The empire and the century.djvu/168

 Bismarck waged war at a profit, we not only received no indemnity, but we mortaged our resources to put countries like Prussia, Austria, and Russia in a position of increased power. They fought for us, it is true, but they also fought for themselves. We ran into debt to a considerable extent in order to induce them to fight for themselves. We loaded our posterity to spare theirs.

It is only since 1870 that we have been able to appreciate fully the element of celestial irony in that fact. The Iron Chancellor wrung the five milliards from France, and his ruthlessness meant one of the most effective achievements in the whole history of the economic competition of nations. The result of the contrast is as follows: that the service of the British National Debt is £27,000,000 a year; of the German Imperial Debt, little more than one-fifth of that amount, or £5,200,000. We pay £29,400,000 for our army, and Germany supports the first army in the world for less, her military estimates amounting to £28,900,000; while we find nearly £37,000,000 for the navy, Germany provides at present rather less than £12,000,000. But if she had a fleet larger than ours, her total charge for debt and the two services would be many millions less than our present total charge for these items. Let us keep, however, to the comparison between existing facts. For Imperial Debt and armaments we pay £93,300,000; Germany £45,800,000, or less than half our burthen.

In this respect alone a German trades in these islands upon more favourable terms than our own people. They are handicapped by the financial services they rendered him in Nelson's and Napoleon's era, while his tariff, in return, forces the British manufacturer to contribute more or less to the cost of his navy. The contrast can be even more forcibly expressed. For the cost of the struggles which made the Empire the British people must pay out of their profits and earnings £27,000,000 a year to the State. Their German and American competitors enter the home market, the Indian market, and the South African market without paying one farthing towards this burthen, and enter,