INTERNATIONAL FINANCE 6 9 



found guilty and sentenced to four years penal servitude to be followed by exile to 

 Siberia for life. So far as the law was concerned, the Russian Government was acting 

 within its international rights; but distrust of .the Russian law and procedure, and 

 especially of the Russian punishments to which this Englishwoman was exposed, excited 

 British public feeling. The Russian Government wisely found a means of letting the 

 lady return to England. On June loth, as the result of a petition to the Tsar, she was 

 released on the terms that she should not again set foot in Russia. The case showed in- 

 deed the desirability of assimilating the laws of different states on nationalities. Assimi- 

 lation, however, would mean, in the case of English law, the surrender of time-honoured 

 principles in favour of foreign principles which, if more logical, are less elastic and might 

 not be suited to the varied conditions of a wide-spread empire. 



Among recent literature, bearing on the subject of this article, the following books may 

 be mentioned: Higgins, Hague Peace Conference (London, 1909), and War and the Private 

 Citizen (London, 1912); James B. Scott, Hague Peace Conferences (2 vols., Baltimore, 1909); 

 Oppenheim, International Law (2 vols. 2nd edition, London 1912); George G. Wilson, Inter- 

 national Law (St. Paul, Minn., 1910); F. E. Smith and J. Wylie, International Law (London, 

 1911); Alvarez, Le droit international Amcricain (Paris, 1910), and Codification du droit 

 international (Paris, 1912); Bray, British Rights at Sea under the Declaration of London (Lon- 

 don, 1911); T. G. Bowles, Sea Law and Sea Power (London, 1910); Cohen, Declaration of 

 London (London, 1911); Bentwich, Declaration of London (London, 1911); Lemonon, Con- 

 ference navale de Londres (Paris, 1909); Reventlow Grossbritannien, Deutschland und die 

 Londoner Conferenz, (Berlin, 1911); Niemeyer, Seekriegsrecht nach der Londoner Declaration 

 (Berlin, 1910); Catellani, La dichiarazione di Londra (Padova, 1912); Wehberg, Capture in 

 War on Land and Sea (trans. London, 1911); Civis, Cargoes and Cruisers, Britain's rights at 

 sea (London, 1911); Baty, Britain and Sea Law (London, 1911); P. Miiller-Heymer, Der 

 Panamakanal (Berlin, 1909); Lord Ch. Beresford, The Betrayal (London, 1912); Norman 

 Angell, The Great Illusion (London, 1910); Barclay, Turco-Italian War and its Problems 

 (London, 1912); Hazeltine, Law of The Air (London, 1911). (THOMAS BARCLAY.) 



INTERNATIONAL FINANCE AND ECONOMICS 1 



The four years 1909-12 constituted a period of rapidly increasing prosperity through- 

 out the world from a financial point of view, and in every respect were the antithesis 

 of the years from 1893 to 1896. Fully to appreciate the conditions it is 

 good credit. essen tial to recollect those of the former period. In the nineties the world 

 suffered from a general breakdown of credit which brought bankruptcy and 

 disaster to many countries. The four years since 1909 have been a period of unbounded 

 confidence and good credit, bringing expansion and progress to almost every 

 nation. In the nineties prices of commodities fell to figures not previously recorded 

 in modern times; in recent years they have risen to a level not witnessed for nearly 

 30 years. In the nineties employment was scarce, more especially in the young and 

 food-producing countries; in recent years employment has become plentiful both in 

 the young and in the old countries, and wages have advanced in most countries to 

 rates not previously reached. In the nineties the fall in prices of commodities had a 

 specially detrimental effect upon the welfare: of the food-producing countries; while 

 the industrial or manufacturing countries and districts derived much benefit from the 

 low cost of food and material. In recent years the rise in prices of commodities has 

 brought renewed prosperity to persons engaged in agriculture throughout the world; 

 and while the advance in the cost of living has in some degree diminished the con- 

 suming power of those engaged in the manufacturing industries, the conditions have 

 been beneficent for the world in general and much more equitable for all sections, the 

 creditor and manufacturing countries having enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, in 

 company with, and not at the expense of, the debtor and mainly agricultural lands. 



The period has been marked by a great deal of labour unrest. This unrest occurred 

 in the mining, manufacturing and distributing industries, in which the cost of living 

 had risen much more rapidly than the rate of wages in comparison with the previous 

 abnormal period of low cost of living. The re-adjustment of wages, and the advances 

 in prices of manufactured goods and of minerals that have now taken place, have again 



1 See E. B. x, 347 et seq. ("Finance"), and articles enumerated in Index Vol., p. 893. 



