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

570 DER FUEHRERIt was the first great accomplishment of Hjalmar Schacht to save thisbillion — or two billions — for Germany's raw material program and totake advantage of the low raw material prices while they lasted. Hepointed to the continued decline in German export figures, and declaredthat if foreign countries would not buy German manufactures, theycould not expect Germany to pay her debts. At first the continueddifficulties of the German export trade greatly embarrassed NationalSocialist propagandists; they did not know whether to attack the 'Jewishboycott' abroad or to conceal its successes from the home population.Actually the boycott had little to do with the decline in German exports;at the end of June, 1933, the Congress of German Commerce andIndustry noted a sharp falling-off of anti-German propaganda abroad,and thirteen months later, in July, 1934, the German Ministry ofEconomics published a statement to the effect that an investigation bythe competent authorities had shown that the political boycott was notthe decisive factor in the decline of German exports.Shortly after Hitler came to power, Germany's foreign creditors hadbeen forced to accept a reduction of interest on capital lent to Germanyfrom an average of 7 to 8 per cent to an average of 5 to 6 per cent. Atthe end of May, 1933, Hjalmar Schacht invited representatives of theforeign creditor banks to Berlin and asked them virtually to renounceinterest payments on their long-term credits. This the foreign bankersrefused to do, but pointed out that in a few days the great WorldEconomic Conference was to open in London and would solve theproblem of German foreign indebtedness, like so many other problems.The London Economic Conference of June and July, 1933, solved noproblems. Conceived and summoned by Ramsay MacDonald, originallywelcomed and approved by Franklin D. Roosevelt, it concentrated itsefforts, after beginnings in various directions, on the question ofstabilizing international currencies, on attempts to restore the lostsanctity of money. After the majesty of money had been shattered inRussia and in Germany, and had suffered grave damage in France aswell, the most respected of all international currencies had begun tototter; England had taken the pound off the gold standard and reducedits value. Just as the Economic