Note 22 — I The Modern Perfecting of Political Passions

For instance, the address of the ‘six great industrial and agricultural associations of Germany’ to Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg in May, 1914, which was not very different from that drawn up in 1815 by the Prussian metallurgists to point out to their government what annexations should be made in the interests of their industry. (See Vidal de La Blache, La France de l’Est, chap. xix.) Moreover, some Germans are urgent in boldly proclaiming the economic character of their nationalism. ‘Let us not forget,’ says a well-known Pangermanist, ‘that the German Empire, which is generally considered abroad as a purely military State, is in its origin (Zollverein) chiefly economic.’ And again: ‘For us war is only the continuation of our commercial activity in times of peace, with other means but the same methods.’ (Naumann, L’Europe Centrale, pp. 112, 247; see the whole book.) Germany seems to be not indeed the only country to practise commercial patriotism (England has done so just as much and for a much longer time) but the only country to boast of it.