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134 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 1 (1927)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0134 and id is 1 raw text is: Europe in 1927 An Economic Survey CHAPTER I THE GROWTH OF POPULATION For Europe the most fundamental problem is the density of population and its persistent increase. Millions died and were crippled during the war. For a time there was a marked decline in the birth rate, and even now the number of births per 1,000 of popula- tion is less than in pre-war days. But population, already of great density, is still growing. There is no one explana- tion for the involved state of Europe in 1927, but this fact of growing numbers should be listed first. Even before the war Europe, particu- larly Western Europe, was a closely settled area. The accompanying map' marked to indicate comparative population density shows that Europe in this particular is rivaled only by parts of Asia. In fact, if national boundary lines are taken as the basis the countries of the world ranking highest in density of population are all in Western Europe with the exception of India and Japan. Aided by the development of manufac- turing and relying on the newer conti- nents for food it was possible for the Europeans to multiply at a rapid rate. Each year they emigrated by hundreds of thousands, but in spite of this relief their numbers still increased. Ex- cluding Russia the total area of Europe was only about two-thirds that of the United States, but its population was more than three times as great. If instead of total area one uses the arable 1Reprinted by permission from Survey of International Affairs 1924, Oxford University Press, 1926. land, or any other suitable basis for com- parison, the results are much the same. This brought certain consequences. A large fraction of the food necessary for sustenance had to come from other areas-notably the Americas, Australia and Russia. There was an abundance of coal in Europe and there were large deposits of iron ore with numerous other raw materials, but still many raw materials came from abroad and in con- stantly increasing amounts. When these products were manufactured they were sold in widely scattered markets and the profits from their manufacture and sale were used to pay for the necessary food and other com- modities not found in Europe. Since profits were large there was still left a considerable amount each year which was invested abroad. A rough esti- mate of those investments has placed them at about forty billion dollars. This was the state of Europe in 1913. Only a few comments are necessary to make clear certain difficulties that were gradually appearing. England, Bel- gium, Germany, France and the rest were becoming more and more depend- ent. Protective tariffs, subsidies to special industries and other devices were not bringing the economic inde- pendence sometimes claimed for them. Dependence on each other and on the rest of the world was growing. Wars or economic disturbances anywhere on the globe brought distress not only where they occurred but in Europe as well. Another tendency was that of a shift- 1

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