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XXII.
SOME ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.·

HE war in South Africa appears to furnish a good
T opportunity for studying some of those questions
which arise in connection with such disturbances of the
economic equilibrium. It stops far short of being one
of those great disturbances which sometimes occur,
such as the war between North and South in the United
States, thirty-five to forty years ago, or such as the war
between France and Germany in 1870, when millions
of people were involved on both sides, and there was in
consequence great stoppage and diversion of industry,
continued in the case of the war between North and
• South for nearly four years. On the other hand, the
war is not one of those little wars which are incident
to the existence of the British Empire, being unavoid-
able on the doctrine of chances with an Empire so
widely extended as our own, and on so small a scale
with reference to the resources of the Empire generally
that they pass almost unnoticed in the economic life of
the nation. Without being a war of the first kind, in-
volving a great and obvious disturbance of the whole
industry of the people, the present war is still on a
large enough scale to produce some visible and palp·
able effects which are the result of war, and it can by
no means be spoken of as war with limited liability.
The war then may be looked at from several points
of view in its economic relations. First, and not the
least important, the circumstances of South Africa itself
have to be considered. The war may not be a first-
rate affair economically, as far as the British Empire is
1 Written in J 900.
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