A REVISION
OF THE TREATY

PREFACE

The Economic Consequences of the Peace, whichI published in December 1919, has been reprintedfrom time to time without revision or correction.So much has come to our knowledge since then,that a revised edition of that book would be outof place. I have thought it better, therefore, toleave it unaltered, and to collect together in thisSequel the corrections and additions which theflow of events makes necessary, together with myreflections on the present facts.

But this book is strictly what it represents itselfto be—a Sequel; I might almost have said anAppendix. I have nothing very new to say onthe fundamental issues. Some of the Remedieswhich I proposed two years ago are now everybodyʼscommonplaces, and I have nothing startlingto add to them. My object is a strictly limitedone, namely to provide facts and materials for anintelligent review of the Reparation Problem as itnow is.

“The great thing about this wood,” said M.Clemenceau of his pine forest in La Vendée, “isthat, here, there is not the slightest chance of[Pg vi]meeting Lloyd George or President Wilson.Nothing here but the squirrels.” I wish that Icould claim the same advantages for this book.

J. M. Keynes.

Kingʼs College, Cambridge,

December 1921.