Page:The Economics of Unemployment.djvu/24

or where rich natural resources can be developed for the benefit of investors and importers.

This business imperialism has in recent decades assumed the same character of cut-throat competition, which, taking place among the great businesses in a single national or international industry, induced the formation of trusts and combines. Indeed, how literally the term 'cut-throat' applies here can only be understood properly by those who take account of the strictly business meaning of 'the place in the sun,' which Germany desiderated, and the unwillingness of other competing empires to concede any of the more lucrative areas of economic exploitation which they had pre-empted. Most imperialist states have ear-marked their protectorates and colonies as peculiar preserves for their own trades and investors, by fiscal and other legal terms of preference. Even those that have not formally 'tied' their acquisitions have taken other means to assist their own nationals to realise the maxim that 'trade, and investments follow the flag.'

As nation after nation, first in Europe, then in America, and recently in Asia, has entered the era of great capitalist industry, the struggle for markets, concessions and political control of backward countries, with a view to favourable opportunities for home manufacturers, merchants and investors, has acquired a growing intensity in the external policy and international relations of these industrial nations. This cut-throat imperialism rests on the implicit assumption of a limited, and insufficient, foreign market. The export trades in each country fear that, if they trust