The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

by Adam Tooze

But he was scathing about those who believed that ‘with the early removal of obstacles in the form of the blockade and similar measures to free international intercourse, private enterprise may be safely entrusted with the task of finding the solution’. The problem of restoring Europe was simply ‘too great for private enterprise, and every delay puts this solution further out of court’. The governments of Europe and America must act to restore basic lines of credit so that private initiative might then take over, otherwise those countries most in need of credit would be caught in a vicious circle of economic crisis, political uncertainty and diminished creditworthiness.42 If the liberal economy was to be saved, if unpolitical international markets were to be restored, the precondition was a political masterstroke.