Meanwhile, trade between the United States and Germany dwindled rapidly. In 1928, American exports to Germany had been worth 2 billion Reichsmarks and exports from Germany to the United States were valued at 796 million Reichsmarks. By 1936, this trade had shrunk to derisory levels. American exports to Germany were worth no more than 232 million Reichsmarks and German exports amounted to less than 150 million Reichsmarks. This extraordinary contraction in trade between Germany and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, was the real substance of Schacht’s ‘autarchic’ trade
...more
