From German industry as a whole, the levy raised 700 million Reichsmarks in its first year. Not surprisingly, it was extremely unpopular. But protests from industry were rebuffed with reference to the ‘special emergency of the state’.83 And it could not be denied that the system was effective. By the end of 1935, the industrial levy was raising funds sufficient to provide the average German exporter with a subsidy of almost 30 per cent on every foreign order.
