ch. vi REPARATION, INTER-ALLY DEBT, ETC. 153

to the creditor or by selling them elsewhere andremitting cash. In either case the goods come onto the world market and are sold competitively orco-operatively in relation to the industries of thecreditor, as the case may be, this distinction depend-ing on the nature of the goods rather than on themarket in which they are sold.

2. It is not much use to earmark non-competitivegoods against the payment of the debt, so long ascompetitive goods are being sold by the debtorcountry in some other connection, e.g. to pay for itsown imports. This is simply to bury one's head inthe sand. For example, out of the aggregate ofgoods which Germany would naturally export inthe event of her exports being forcibly stimulated,it might be possible to pick out a selection of non-competitive goods; but it would not affect thesituation in the slightest degree to pretend that itwas these particular goods, and not the others,which were paying the debt. It is therefore uselessto prescribe that Germany shall pay in certainspecified commodities if these are commodities whichshe would export in any case, and useless, equally,to forbid her to pay in certain specified commodities,if that merely means that she will export thesecommodities to some other market to pay for herimports generally. No expedient on our part formaking Germany pay us, or on America's part formaking us pay her, in the shape of particular