Under the rules of the gold standard, with the Young Plan demanding annual payments of 2 billion Reichsmarks and international capital markets increasingly nervous about German borrowing, deflation was the only option.56 The political costs were huge. Between April and July 1930 Germany’s parliamentary system tore itself apart in the struggle over Bruening’s deflation package. It was to force through the highly controversial poll tax on 16 July 1930 that Bruening first resorted to the emergency powers provided under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. More cuts and tax increases followed
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