The Spectator at war: Commercial possibilities

From The Spectator, 22 August 1914:

IT is gratifying to find that the public is rapidly waking up to the fact that other prospects than those of universal unemployment arise out of the present war. The daily papers of this week, instead of talking of the necessity for relief funds, have begun to talk of the tremendous commercial possibilities revealed for Great Britain by the collapse of Germany’s oversea commerce. The main cause of that collapse everybody now understands. It is due to England’s possession of superior sea-power. In addition, it must be noted that many German manufacturing concerns have been obliged to shut down because their work-people have gone to the front. This factor would have affected German commerce even if Germany had kept the seas open, and it has the additional dis- advantage for her that it robs her of the chance of carrying on land commerce with the few countries of Europe that still remain neutral.