or
more. It can relieve the stagnation and make profitable investment by an
active campaign for public and private contracts and for sound and fair
concessions, not visionary or get-rich-too-quick schemes.
Supposably, the repairing of the destruction brought by the war will
make European capital scarce for some years, but an effort will
doubtless be made to retain for it its former preponderance in these
countries; and so it is important that, whatever the war's effects upon
our own money markets, use should be made of such an opportunity as does
not come more than once.
To be sure, the scarcity of money in the United States makes this
difficult, but the same worldwide money scarcity will secure an
especially high rate of interest in Latin America, where even in normal
times money can often be placed on excellent security in some of the
countries, and at a rate very high indeed compared to that prevailing
now in the United States. For safe investments with such a margin of
profit, it is to be hoped that money, even if dear at home, will be
forthcoming.
Undoubtedly the purchasing power of these republics has been hard hit by
the cutting off of credits and markets by the war, as their Governments
have been hard hit through the falling off of revenues from import
duties.
Pages:
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348