The Eldorado That Ended
The Treaty takes territory, ships, rolling stock, and coal as if the prewar circuit could survive as a moral leftover. Long-term thinking would have asked what Europe still is once the fabric of iron, coal, and transport is torn. Paris asks what can be seized this round. The two questions are not the same species. One is a horizon. The other is a trophy count.
Key Insight
If the payment you want requires next decade's output, do not spend this year's plant on applause. A settlement that treats capital goods as loot has already chosen the short term and called it justice.
“This provision has the effect of intrusting to the Reparation Commission for the period in question dictatorial powers over all German property of every description whatever.”
