THE SPIRIT OF CONQUEST. 525 



costly to Russia or Prussia as to England, we will reduce this figure 

 one fourth. We shall then have, between 1700 and 1815, an annual 

 expenditure of 787,500,000 francs ($157,500,000).* Let us estimate 

 the cost of the wars of the seventeenth century at a slightly lower 

 sum, putting it at only 500,000,000 francs (or $100,000,000) a year 

 for all Europe. That would make 41,000,000,000 francs ($8,200,- 

 000,000), or for the entire period from 1618 to 1815, 131,562,- 

 500,000 francs ($26,312,500,000). 



We have more certain data for the nineteenth centurv. The 

 Crimean, Italian, Schleswig-Holstein, and American Wars, and the 

 war of 1866, cost 46,830,000,000 francs ($9,366,000,000).f The 

 war of France cost 15,000,000,000 francs ($3,000,000,000) at the 

 lowest; that of 1877 at least 4,000,000,000 francs ($800,000,000). 

 Add for the war of Greek independence, the French and Austrian 

 expeditions to Spain and Naples, the Polish war of 1830, the Turco- 

 Russian war of 1828-'29, and the wars of 1848, 3,000,000,000 francs 

 ($600,000,000) more — a very moderate estimate; we reach a total sum 

 of 68,830,000,000 francs ($13,766,000,000). None of the extra- 

 European conflicts are comprised in this figure; neither the war be- 

 tween Russia and Persia in 1827, that of Mehemet Ali against the 

 Turks, the struggle against the mountaineers of the Caucasus and 

 against the Arabs in Algeria, or the English campaign in Afghanistan 

 — concerning all of which we have no figures. 



Counting only the figures we have been able to obtain, we have 

 for the period from 1618 till our own days 200,392,000,000 francs 

 ($50,078,500,000) as the bare direct losses by war, which have. had 

 to be defrayed by the budgets of the different European states. 

 How shall we calculate the indirect losses? Between 1618 and 1648 

 Germany lost 6,000,000 inhabitants. The destruction of property 

 was prodigious, the ravages were frightful. How can we represent 

 them in money? It is absolutely impossible. There are, too, some 

 expenses arising from the spirit of conquest that almost wholly 

 escape observation. We shall give only two examples of them. 



The ctesohedonic fallacy (lust for possession) raged in the middle 

 ages between the nearest neighbors. No city could offer any security 

 unless it was surrounded by strong walls. Since these required great 

 expenditures, they could not be rebuilt every few days. For this 

 reason space was greatly economized in the cities, and their streets 

 were very narrow. At a later period, when security had become 



* See Seeley's Expansion of England, p. 21. This figure is very moderate. Between 

 1802 and 1813 France alone spent 498,000,000 francs ($99,600,000) a year. See Laroque, 

 La Guerre et les Armees permanentes, Paris, 18*70, p. 203. 



f See P. Leroy-Beaulieu, Recherches economiques sur les Guerres contemporaines, Paris, 

 p. 181. 



