212 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

Reparation was their main excursion into the eco-nomic field, and they settled it as a problem of theo-logy, of politics, of electoral chicane, from every pointof view except that of the economic future of theStates whose destiny they were handling.

I leave, from this point onwards,! Paris, the Con-ference, and the Treaty , briefly to consider thepresent situation of Europe , as the War and thePeace have made it; and it will no longer be partof my purpose to distinguish between the inevitablefruits of the War and the avoidable misfortunes ofthe Peace.

The essential facts of the situation, as I see them,are expressed simply. Europe consists of the densestaggregation of population in the history of theworld. This population is accustomed to a rela-tively high standard of life, in which, even now, somesections of it anticipate improvement rather thandeterioration. In relation to other continents Europe is not self-sufficient; in particular it cannot feeditself. Internally the population is not evenly dis-tributed, but much of it is crowded into a relativelysmall number of dense industrial centres. Thispopulation secured for itself a livelihood before theWar, without much margin of surplus, by means of adelicate and immensely complicated organisation, ofwhich the foundations were supported by coal, iron,transport, and an unbroken supply of imported foodand raw materials from other continents. By the