252 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



balance true and to prevent the undue ascendancy of one individual 

 to the exclusion and to the undoing of others. They are: first, 

 the disinterestedness of human nature which has led many a man 

 to give up not only his life but also the chances of so-called personal 

 aggrandizement for the sake of benefiting other individuals and the 

 race at large; second, the self-interest of human nature which leads 

 every man to struggle against those interests and ascendancies that 

 he conceives to be prejudicial to his own personal welfare. It is 

 only by a true appreciation of these two predominant influences in 

 the lives of nations and mankind that we shall be able to exercise the 

 curb in international relations that is of paramount importance if 

 we are to prevent a repetition of the struggle of the past four years. 



Germany's method of commercial expansion. 



A clear exposition of some of the conditions and policy that led 

 up to the recent Avar is shown in a book published during 1918, 1 

 " Germany's Commercial Grip on the World," by M. Henri Hauser, 

 a professor in the University of Dijon. It was written in order to 

 bring to the French-speaking public the realization of Germany 's 

 business methods as applied to her foreign trade, the business methods 

 by which she had acquired before the war a commercial ascendancy, 

 little realized by the average business man in countries not appar^- 

 ently within the sphere of German influence, and completely un- 

 appreciated by the unsuspecting consumer, who regarded the trade 

 mark " made in Germany " with an amused toleration frequently 

 bordering on contempt. 



Hauser's book is a distinctly fair and unbiased attempt to set 

 before the mercantile and also the lay reader the means by which 

 Germany had made for herself that domination in the commercial 

 world which is the undoing of all real international democracy. 

 He gives due credit to German economic virtues, such as her in- 

 crease in population, her industry, her discipline, and her submis- 

 sion to authority. In his analysis he emphasizes four fundamental 

 instruments in the attainment of German commercial power: the 

 bank system, the cartel, the transport organization, and the role 

 of the state in encouraging and supporting specialized industries. 



The hank syste/n'^-Hy the combination in German banks of 

 the three functions of deposit, credit, and finance these organiza- 

 tions have been enabled to play a part in the promotion of industrial 

 enterprise which in our own country is reserved for the individual 

 financier, for the banker rather than for the bank. In order to 

 render their export trade independent of British and French financial 

 channels, the various large German banks began, as Haitser aptly 



1 Hauser, Henri, " Germany's Commercial Grip oa the World," Scribner, 1918./ 



