The vital interdependence here indicated, cutting
athwart frontiers, is largely the work of the last forty
yearsj^and^itrhasraunrig t^ so deve loped Tas

to have set up a'fmaiiicra^^^ of the

capitals or tne world, so complex that distjirR^nQgJii
lTew'"TbVIf Involves financial. and QQiT)J^§xci9l«|Jis-
turbance in London, and^if-saffi^eatiy gP ftY^j r" ^^!!-
pels financiers of London to co-operate with those of
New York to put an end to the crisis, not as a matter
of altniism; iJtrt ' as a matter of commercig^ri^
protection. The complexity of modem finance makes
'New "York dependent on London, London upon
Paris, Paris upon Berlin, to a greater degree than has
ever yet been the case in history. This interdepend-



The Impossibility of Confiscation 55

ence is the result of the daily use of those contriv-
ances of civilization which date from yesterday —
the rapid post, the insta ntaneou s dissemin ation of
nnanciai and commerciaFinformation ty means of '
TetogRiyh y, ui ' id ' ^BiieiaUy the hiCi ' e fflblfe^tfgreasTm
"tne rapidity of commtmication which has put the
half-dozen chief capitals of Christendom in closer
contact financially, and has rendered them more
dependent the one upon the other than were the
chief cities of Great Britain less than a hundred
years ago.
