IX COMPARATIVE WAR FINANCE The New Budget--Our own and Germany's Balance-sheets--The Enemy's Difficulties--Mr Bonar Law's Optimism--Special Advantages which Peace will bring to Germany--A Comparison with American Finance--How much have we raised from Revenue?--The Value of the Pound To-day--The 1918 Budget an Improvement on its Predecessors--But Direct Taxation still too Low--Deductions from the Chancellor's Estimates X INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY An Inopportune Proposal--What is Currency?--The Primitive System of Barter--The Advantages possessed by the Precious Metals--Gold as a Standard of Value--Its Failure to remain Constant--Currency and Prices--The Complication of other Instruments of Credit--No Substitute for Gold in Sight--Its Acceptability not shaken by the War--A Fluctuating Standard not wholly Disadvantageous--An International Currency fatal to the Task of Reconstruction--Stability and Certainty the Great Needs XI BONUS SHARES A Deluge of Bonus Shares--The Effect on the Market--A Problem in Financial Psychology--The Capitalisation of Reserves--The Stock Exchange View--The Issue of Bonus-carrying Shares--The Case of the A.B.C.--A Wiser Variation from Canada--Bonus Shares on Flotation--An American Device--Midwife or Doctor?--The Good and Bad Points of both Systems XII STATE MONOPOLY IN BANKING Bank Fusions and the State--Their Effects on the Bank of England--Mr Sidney Webb's Forecast--His Views of the Benefits of a Bank Monopoly--The Contrast between German Experts and British Amateurs--Bankers' Charges as affected by Fusions--The Effects of Monopoly without the Fact--The "Disinterested Management" Fallacy--The Proposal to split Banking Functions--A Picture of the State in Control XIII FOREIGN CAPITAL The Difference between Aims and Acts--Should Foreign Capital be allowed in British Industry?--The Supremacy of London and National Trade--No need to fear German Capital--We shall need all we can get--Foreign Shares in British Companies--Can and should the Disclosure of Foreign Ownership be forced?--The Difficulties of the Problem--Aliens and British Shipping--The Position of "Key" Industries--Freedom to Import and Export Capital our Best Policy XIV NATIONAL GUILDS The Present Economic Structure--Its Weaknesses and Injustices--Were things ever better?--The Aim of State Socialism--A Rival Theory--The New Movement of Guild Socialism--Its Doctrines and Assumptions--Payment "as Human Beings"--The "Degradation" of earning Wages--Production irrespective of Demand--Is that the Real Meaning of Freedom?--The Old Evils under a New Name--A Conceivably Practical Scheme for some other World