The Economic Causes of War

ever tends to become greater and greater. The development of the instruments of war alone is sufficient to bring about this result because their powers of destruction are proportionately increased. Disregarding this purely technical influence in order that we may direct our attention exclusively to the economic phase, it is evident, in the first place, that the more war develops and the more frequently conquered states are annexed, the more the number of warring nations diminishes and, by so much, the power of each one increases. Now, so long as the warring states are of slight territorial extent the sum of the wealth destroyed in the conflict is itself of small importance; when, on the other hand, the rivals are great and powerful the loss and destruction of wealth which follows theirclash is all the more considerable, and this, unfortunately, is not the only evil. The greater the economic development, the greater the loss occasioned the national economy by the destruction of a given number of men; either because the cost of educating a man has increased and as a corollary, his economic value; or, because his co-efficient of procreation has diminished, thereby making it more difficult to replace the dead. While, considered in this manner, the destruction of men by war works to the disadvantage of the capitalistic class, it causes an even greater loss to the workers, whom it decimates. To the increasing losses inflicted by war through its effects on the hum...