“ In the economic sphere, one of these is agreed to be the rate of exchange at which the currency of belligerent countries can be negotiated in neutral centres. One may thus employ this criterion to the financial position of Germany without risking any serious economic blunder. The criterion of foreign exchange is the one best applied to the credit of a belligerent country because experience has shown that, internally, the difficulties of war finance can fairly easily be met. ”

“ It may be said, however, that a certain amount of depreciation of a belligerent's currency in a neutral centre is inevitable, and that even British credit has not emerged from the ordeal unscathed. This seems true, but the chart overleaf shows that British money has depreciated to a very much smaller extent than that of Germany. It will further be observed that during the last year while British currency recovered by 2 per cent. in Amsterdam, German marks depreciated by a further 8 per cent. ”