When France is compared with other countries in respect of commercial
development and progress, the results will in almost every particular
turn out unfavourable to France. For example, since the close of the
Napoleonic wars eighty-three years ago the national trade of Great
Britain has quadrupled, while that of France has only trebled. At the
close of the Franco-German war France was eighteen per cent. ahead of
Germany in the carrying power of her shipping. Now Germany is seventy
per cent. ahead of France in that respect. But it must be remembered
that the Franco-German war cost France in army expenses and in
indemnity no less a sum than $3,250,000,000. The effect of that
tremendous expenditure upon the prosperity of the nation can be
estimated by one comparison. Since that war the annual average savings
per inhabitant in France have been $17. For the same period the annual
average savings per inhabitant in Great Britain have been $19.50. Had
that war not occurred the average annual savings per inhabitant in
France would have been $21.50. In short, no people in Europe are
comparable with the working classes of the French people in frugality
and thrift, and because of this characteristic, if France were well
governed, its prosperity would be equal to that of any country in the
world, and this would be so in spite of the fact that France's
interest bill imposes a tax of $6.50 a year on every inhabitant of the
country.
[Illustration: Street scene in Paris, showing the Bourse.]