192 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

from her. Her saving on armaments is far morethan balanced by her annual charge for pensionsnow estimated at £250,000,000/ which representsa real loss of productive capacity. And even if weput on one side the burden of the internal debt, whichamounts to 240 milliards of marks, as being a questionof internal distribution rather than of productivity,we must still allow for the foreign debt incurredby Germany during the war, the exhaustion of herstock of raw materials, the depletion of her live-stock, the impaired productivity of her soil fromlack of manures and of labour, and the diminutionin her wealth from the failure to keep up manyrepairs and renewals over a period of nearly fiveyears. Germany is not as rich as she was beforethe war, and the diminution in her future savings forthese reasons, quite apart from the factors previouslyallowed for, could hardly be put at less than ten percent, that is £40,000,000 annually.

These factors have already reduced Germany 'sannual surplus to less than the £100,000,000 atwhich we arrived on other grounds as the maximumof her annual payments. But even if the rejoinder'be made, that we have not yet allowed for thelowering of the standard of life and comfort inGermany which may reasonably be imposed on a

1 The conversion at par of 5000 million marks overstates by reason of theexisting depreciation of the mark, the present money burden of the actualpensions payments, but not, in all probability, the real loss of national pro-ductivity as a result of the casualties suffered in the war.