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''The Economic Consequences of the Peace'' (1919) is a book written and published by John Maynard Keynes. Keynes attended the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 as a delegate of the British Treasury and argued for a much more generous peace. It was a best-seller throughout the world and was critical in establishing a general opinion that the Versailles Treaty was a "Carthaginian peace". It helped to consolidate American public opinion against the treaty and involvement in the League of Nations. The perception by much of the British public that Germany had been treated unfairly in turn was a crucial factor in public support for appeasement. The success of the book established Keynes' reputation as a leading economist especially on the left. When Keynes was a key player in establishing the Bretton Woods system in 1944, he remembered the lessons from Versailles as well as the Great Depression. The Marshall Plan after Second World War is a similar system to that proposed by Keynes in ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace''. == Writing of the book == Keynes left Cambridge University to work at the Treasury in 1915. He worked daily on financing the war effort during World War I. This disturbed many of the pacifist members of the Bloomsbury Group of which Keynes was a member. Lytton Strachey sent him a note in 1916 asking Keynes why he was still working at the Treasury. Keynes quickly established a reputation as one of the Treasury's most able men and travelled to the Versailles Conference as an advisor to the British Government. In preparation for the conference, he argued that there should be no reparations or that, at worst, German reparations should be limited to £2,000 million. He considered that there should be a general forgiveness of war debts which he considered would benefit Britain. Lastly, Keynes wanted the US Government to launch a vast credit program to restore Europe to prosperity as soon as possible. Keynes' general concern was that the Versailles conference should set the conditions for economic recovery. However, the conference focused on borders and national security. Reparations were set at a level that Keynes perceived would ruin Europe, Woodrow Wilson refused to countenance forgiveness of war debts and would not even let the US Treasury officials discuss the credit program. During the conference, Keynes' health deteriorated and he resigned in frustration from his position on 26 May 1919. He retired to Cambridge and wrote ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace'' over two months in the English summer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Economic Consequences of the Peace」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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