“I am not so much afraid of this difficulty, for the German people have learnt the value of the fleet.  We have got beyond the tentative stage, and have paid enough for our experience.  We must hold fast what we possess and recover what we have lost during the last decades through the unfortunately unbusiness-like spirit of our foreign policy.  Then the German people will have renewed confidence in our colonial policy.”

“But how will you raise the sums necessary to make our fleet strong and powerful?”

“Our negotiations with the friendly Governments of France and Russia are a proof that in these states, just as in the German people, there is a desire for a diminution of the land army; there is an equally strong feeling in Italy and Austria.  The people would break down under the burden if the expenses for the army were increased, if we diminish our land army we shall have the means to increase our naval forces.  Now, after a victorious war, the moment has come when the whole Continent can reduce its enormous standing armies to a footing commensurate with the financial capacities of its people.  The external enemy is conquered; we must not think of conjuring up the internal enemy by laying excessive burdens on all classes.”

“You spoke just now of the unbusiness-like spirit of our foreign policy.  How is this reproach to be understood?”

“Quite literally, Your Royal Highness!  The bargain which gave up Zanzibar to get Heligoland would never have been possible if our diplomacy had shown the same far-sightedness and intelligence as the English in economic questions, which I can only designate by the honourable title of a ‘business-like spirit.’  This business-like spirit is the mainspring of industry and agriculture, of trade and handicrafts, as of all industrial life generally, and it is necessary that this business-like spirit should also be recognised in our ministries as the necessary condition for the qualification to judge of the economic interests of the people.  In this respect our statesmen and officials and our industrial classes can learn more from our vanquished enemy than in anything else.  England owes her greatness to being ’a nation of shopkeepers,’ while our economic development and our external influence has been hindered more than anything else by the contempt with which the industrial classes have been treated amongst us up to the most recent times.  In England the merchant has always stood higher in the social scale than the officer and official.  Amongst us he is looked upon almost as a second-class citizen compared with the other two.  What in England is valued as only a means to an end is regarded by us as an end in itself.  The spirit of that rigid bureaucracy, of which Prince Bismarck has already complained, is still unfortunately with few exceptions the prevailing spirit in our Empire, from the highest to the lowest circles; the lack of appreciation of the importance of economic life is the cause of the low esteem in which the industrial classes are held.  The sound business-like spirit, which pervades all English state life, cuts the ground from under the feet of Social Democracy in England, while with us it is gaining ground year by year.  I am convinced that our German people have no need to fear Social Democracy, for in reforming social cancers those who govern are of more importance than those who are governed.”