AFTER THE WAR OF' iS-jo-iSji. 167 



pletion of the French loans and the transmission of 

 the sum abroad. The French Government did not 

 pay to Germany in cash more than 21,840,000 in 

 gold and 10,920,000 in silver, the rest being in 

 letters of credit and bills. The cost of conversion was 

 rather more than 500,000, and the only point which 

 has not been cleared up, and which it would be 

 interesting to ascertain, is how, after having des- 

 patched from France the sums of money collected in 

 so many other countries, they were then remitted to 

 Germany, which could only have been done by con- 

 verting all the other foreign securities into German 

 securities. It appears that this operation was in a 

 great measure facilitated by the fact that during the 

 years 1871-73 Germany was largely indebted to 

 England for the balance of trade. But the report of 

 the National Assembly does not give any further details 

 upon this point. 



Another large operation, resulting from the pay- 

 ment of this indemnity, was that which involved the 

 reconstitution of our war material, and this forms a 

 chaos into which it is no easy matter to throw any 

 light, the schemes of the Government and of the 

 financial committees of the Assembly having varied a 

 good deal owing to the uncertainty as to what was 

 the best way to go to work. It is certain that at the 

 termination of the war, when it was necessary to re- 

 plenish our emptied arsenals and stores, to reconstitute 

 our new frontier and our army, there was no means 



