To-day, the general world depression, which lasted several years and affected every country in the world without exception, may be regarded as a thing of the past, The economic recovery during the last few years has been maintained throughout, and in many countries production figures are higher even than in the prosperous pre-slump period.
However, this-improvement has not been felt in international trade.
Figures have certainly risen since the depression, but they have not reached ihe 1929 level. What has prevented international trade from enjoying the same degree of renewed prosperity as national trade? When the old-fashioned form of world trade, Which was based on free trade, equal chances on the international markets and mutual trust, broke down, the various nations were obliged first of all to restore order.and reconstruct their own economic systems. Each country was obliged to carry out this reorganization on its own, and it often happened that they forgot the needs of the other in the process, but now that domestic trade curves are once more showing an upward tendency, people are beginning to realize more and more that nations are dependent upon one another; a realization which has been strengthened by the experiments in self-sufficiency during the slump.
People are advocating a revival in international trade which has been deprived of its natural function by tariffs, import duties, currency restrictions, devaluation, monetary instability and other obstacles. Germany is greatly in favour of international ce-operation, and a number of conferences dealing with such questions have been held there only recently,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.