The direct cost of the war was calculated by the board at somewhere
between $170,000,000,000 and $180,000,000,000, not taking into account
the authorization of the debt or the cost of indemnities.
Four-fifths of the huge burden fell upon the shoulders of the future,
only Great Britain and America absorbing a considerable amount by
taxation.
The total debt of the seven principal belligerents before the war did
not exceed $25,000,000,000.
The board contrasted these figures with the total value of the gold and
silver extracted from the earth since the beginning of the world, which,
it said, hardly exceeded $30,000,000,000.
The belligerent nations, therefore, owed about six times the amount of
all the gold and silver produced in all time.
Prices rose to three times the average of what they were at the
beginning of the war.
Great Britain's debt increased almost ten times over in the period of
the war, or from $3,580,000,000 to $32,450,000,000 down to June, 1918.
These figures do not include the debts of Australia, Canada, New Zealand
and South Africa, British colonies.
France's debt was quadrupled by the beginning of 1918, increasing from
$6,833,000,000 to $25,410,000,000.
Italy's debt rose from $2,929,000,000 to $6,918,000,000.
Figures for Russia were brought up only to September, 1917, but they
showed that at that time she owed $26,287,000,000, as compared with
$5,234,000,000 at the beginning of the war.
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