While we are on this subject of finance and economics, it may be well to refer briefly to Germany's position. It was known that Germany alone among the European Powers kept a well filled war chest. It was understood that up to 1913, the war reserve amounted to £6,000,000 in gold. Under the new Army Law of 1913, it was stipulated that this reserve should be trebled. There was reason to believe that in addition the German Government had put aside for the purposes of the present war about £30,000,000 out of the £50,000,000 which it had been hoped to raise by last year's special war levy. Although some of this cash was spent on preparing the new Army Corps, and possibly also in strengthening the fortresses, it was generally believed that the greater part of it was kept in reserve to meet the initial expenses of the present campaign.
In addition to this, of course, large sums were obtained from Belgium in the form of war levies. The Province of Brabant, for example, was mulcted to the extent of £18,000,000, Brussels to the extent of £10,000,000, Liège £2,000,000, and smaller towns in proportion. From the cities on the French border, as well as from various towns in Belgium, large supplies of stores and food were also demanded, sometimes in addition to money and sometimes as a substitute.
These amounts, large as they are, would not seem sufficient to carry on the war for any great length of time. Some calculations were made by Paris Correspondents of the Daily Telegraph at the outbreak of the campaign. The minimum cost was estimated there at £400,000,000.
The figures given by military writers coincided and agreed that about 8,500,000 men were under arms for land warfare. To these must be added 340,000 seamen. If the Balkan War were taken as an example, the cost of each man mobilised amounts to 10s. a day. This gives about £4,400,000 daily, or £132,000,000 monthly.
This figure is, however, considerably short of the mark, because it does not take into account the maintenance of the armies and fleets.
The German Reichstag authorised extraordinary expenditure to the extent of £250,000,000 to be obtained by a loan, and a further sum of £14,000,000 to be drawn on the gold and silver reserve of the Empire.
It is now well known that the tax of 5 per cent. on the stock of notes issued by the Reichsbank over and above its reserve in metal has been suppressed. The German Government will therefore secure the loan required by an issue of bank notes uncovered by a reserve of gold and silver.
This issue reminds one of the assignats of the first French Revolution, of which a few samples are kept as curious heirlooms in French families.
It was stated in Paris that the Austrian army on a war footing cost the Empire £800,000 a day, but the Austrian Treasury was emptied by the mobilisation during the Balkan wars, which drained the financial resources of the Empire for more than a year, and it is hard to see where the Austrian Monarchy can find the large sums required to keep the Imperial and Royal armies and navy during the present war.