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entirely to the prices and quality of their goods and to the ordinary activity of business agents to sell them, they will be left with an utterly insufficient outlet for their surplus after the domestic market is supplied. Financiers fear that, unless they can get pressure from their foreign offices, with the necessary force in the background, the good opportunities for investment in China or in Asia Minor will pass to other groups, whose governments are more skilful or more pushful in their imperialist policy. It may, of course, be said that the imperialistic competition does not necessarily signify any absolute deficiency of markets or investment opportunities, but merely the superior value of some opportunities over others. If the best opportunities are already occupied, later comers must struggle either to expel the occupants or to seize, for their exclusive use, the next best opportunities; for otherwise they will be left with the inferior markets and areas for development. But this treatment of imperialism, as an international struggle for areas of economic vantage, rests upon a substantial background of belief that there is only a certain amount of foreign market that is worth having, only a certain amount of the backward world at present worth developing. Each nation fears that unless it 'hustles' it will be left with wholly unremunerative propositions at its disposal. The total quantity of export goods available for these backward countries, and the quantity of capital available in normal times for their development, appear to be constantly in excess of the effective demand. Not only the best opportunities but any remunerative opportunity appear to be limited.