Spain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945-57: Challenge and Response (St. Antony's Series)

Foreign currency earnings by exports and long-term capital investment, 1948-55 (in millions of dollars) 132 7.2 Distribution of foreign trade of the Spanish monetary area by main monetary areas and main partners, 1950-5 (in percentages) 136 7.3 British trade with Spain, 1947-9 (value in thousands of sterling) 142 7.4 British imports of selected raw materials, 1949-50 144 7.5 Spain's balance of payments with the OEEC monetary areas in 1949-50 (in pesetas) 151 7.6 Germany's imports from Italy and Spain, 1950-2 (in millions of deutschmarks) 153 7.7 Comparison of quotas and imports from the relaxation area of the items affected by the cuts ofNovember 1951 and March 1952 (in thousands of sterling, cif) 155 7.8 British imports from Spain, 1950-3 (in sterling) 157 7.9 British total and agricultural imports from Italy and Spain, 1949-53 (in thousands of sterling) 158 7.10 France's total and agricultural imports from Italy and Spain, 1949-53 (in millions of French francs) 159 7.11 Trade liberalization percentages achieved by the OEEC with respect to private trade in the three different categories, June 1950/April1954 163 8.1 Spain's import trade from EPU countries and their dependent territories under private and government accounts, 1948 176 8.2 Swings allowed to Spain by Western Europe, April1953 (in dollars) 183 Xl (say, from 1 January 1945 to 31 December 1946). ( .. )means not available while (-) means none, negligible or entry not applicable. For the sake of simplicity, the expression Spanish monetary area means the area formed by metropolitan Spain, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, although it actually included Spanish Morocco, the territory oflfni, Rio de Oro and Spanish Guinea also. The best part of doing this book was to run into some of the people I am about to mention. This book needed four years of intense research and one more for writing a first draft in the form of a doctoral dissertation. Three more years elapsed before the manuscript found the right publisher and one more to make the deal. Many are the debts of gratitude I have accumulated during the course of these years. In the intellectual field, the members of the research group 'The History of European Integration', which was active at the European University Institute of Florence (EUI) between September 1987 and December 1991, deserve the highest praise. They constituted the best group of colleagues I could ever have dreamed of for the launching of this project. In many I continue to find generous encouragement. Based on a wide range of archival sources, this book analyzes the response of the most peripheral country in Western Europe, Franco's Spain, to the challenges of increasing economic interdependence from the end of World War II to the establishment of the EEC, 1945-57. For the first time, the consequences of Spain's exclusion from the Marshall Plan and subsequent multilateral mechanisms for trade and payments are fully considered. By offering a challenging interpretation of some of the most important aspects of Spain's foreign economic policy at the time of intense international cooperation, this volume sheds new light on the fundamental question of the survival of the Franco regime and provides stimulus to further discussion on the nature of external factors involved in Spain's pattern of economic growth after 1945. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-6 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Spain’s Contribution to West European Economic Relief and [Early Phase of] Reconstruction....Pages 9-22 The Exigencies of French and British Economic Reconstruction....Pages 23-34 Trade versus Politics: An Instructive Debate....Pages 35-54 Front Matter....Pages 55-55 Import Requirements for National Reconstruction and Modernization....Pages 57-85 Spain’s Limited Financial Resources....Pages 86-106 Was there an Alternative Course of Action?....Pages 107-128 Front Matter....Pages 129-129 Avoiding the Collapse of Spain’s Bilateral Trade Channels....Pages 131-170 Financial Diplomacy: Spain and the European Payments Union....Pages 171-188 Concluding Remarks....Pages 189-206 Back Matter....Pages 207-239 Based on a wide range of archival sources, this book analyses the response of the most peripheral country in Western Europe, Franco's Spain, to the challenges of increasing economic interdependence from the end of World War II to the establishment of the EEC, 1945-57. In so doing, the author sheds new light on the fundamental question of the survival of the Franco regime and stimulates further discussion on the external factors responsible for Spain's pattern of economic growth after 1945.