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nydus/The Economic Consequences of the PeacePublic

John Maynard Keynes, a former British Treasury representative at the Paris Peace Conference, outlines his objections to the economic policies established by the Treaty of Versailles. He argues that the terms of the peace agreement threaten the stability of the European economic organization and risk further damaging a system already weakened by war.

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Table of Contents

Reparation

It has sometimes been argued that the preamble to paragraph 1976 of the Armistice Terms, to the effect "that any future claims and demands of the Allies and the United States of America remain unaffected," wiped out all precedent conditions, and left the Allies free to make whatever demands they chose. But it is not possible to maintain that this casual protective phrase, to which no one at the time attached any particular importance, did away with all the formal communications which passed between the President and the German Government as to the basis of the Terms of Peace during the days preceding the Armistice, abolished the Fourteen Points, and converted the German acceptance of the Armistice Terms into unconditional surrender, so far as it affects the Financial Clauses. It is merely the usual phrase of the draftsman, who, about to rehearse a list of certain claims, wishes to guard himself from the implication that such list is exhaustive.

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