Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY 669This happy accident pointed the way to German trade policy. In 1933,the first year of National Socialism, the helpful discrepancy betweenimport and export prices remained almost as great as in the previousyear, although in this year German foreign trade continued to shrink;exports reckoned at current prices fell to 4,900,-000,000 marks, importsto 4,200,000,000. But, according to the prices of 1928, the relationbetween exports and imports remained the opposite: exports,7,600,000,000, imports, 9300,000,000, and this meant that, though theprices of the goods exported from Germany had continued to fall andwere now 35.5 per cent below those of 1928, the prices of imports hadfallen even more and stood more than half, or 54.8 per cent below thelevel of 1928 — so cheap had become the treasures of the world, rottingbehind the customs barriers.It was the great moment for Germany to supply herself cheaply withraw materials despite the relatively small sums which her exportsprovided for the purpose. Every mark was precious — and how manyprecious marks were still flowing uselessly out of Germany, bringing innothing! These 'useless' sums were the money spent by Germany inservicing foreign loans; in the eyes of Hjalmar Schacht a real outrage.When the German banking crisis broke out in July, 1931, Germanyhad had 23,800,000,000 marks in foreign debts, of which10,700,000,000 were in long-term credits. Of the 13,100,000,000 in shorttermcredits, 6300,000,000 had been frozen by the moratorium ofSeptember, 1931, but smaller sums had seeped away in the course oftime. In February, 1933, the total German non-political indebtedness toforeign countries (including loans taken up by German states andmunicipalities) was exactly 19,000,000,000 marks, 10300,000,000 ofwhich was on a long-term basis; 4,100,000,000 in short-term credits fellunder the moratorium; the rest consisted of other short-term credits,subject to no limitation except the usual foreign currency controlintroduced in 1931. All together, Germany had, during the year 1932,paid on this debt in interest, dividends, and amortization a sum of1,100,000,000 marks — which, if expressed in terms of raw materialprices of 1928, meant more than 2,200,000,000. And the men whodirected German economic life in 1933 thought only in terms of rawmaterials.