Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/141

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THE OPEN DOOR
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to lie along the lines of privilege and protection, and that until democracy became a political reality these organized group interests might continue to mould the fiscal policy of their several States.

But though this consideration has retarded the pacific influence of commerce, it has not been a direct and potent influence for international dissension. While the refusal of nations to open their markets on equal terms to foreigners retards and chills friendship, it does not normally promote hostility. It is the struggle for colonies, protectorates, and concessions in undeveloped countries, that has been the most disturbing feature in modern politics and economics. Foreign policy in recent decades has more and more turned upon the acquisition of business advantages in backward parts of the world, spheres of commerce, influence, and exploitation, leases, concessions, and other privileges, partly for commerce, but mainly for the profitable investment of capital. For it is the export of capital, the wider and more

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