Vers l’organisation d’une économie de guerre : les accords de clearing allemands dans les années 1930

Abstract

Faced with a shortage of foreign currency reserves from 1931, the German Reich faced it through increasingly draconian exchange controls. As soon as Hitler came to power, he brought all his trade agreements into the clearing system. Compensation had several advantages from his point of view. It saved foreign exchange reserves, while allowing Germany to pay foreign suppliers and to honour the service of debts, of the Dawes and Young plans in particular. By organizing the clearing, Berlin was also dividing the front of the creditors and bringing Europe into the logic of its rearmament. The Reich was thus preparing, step by step, the general clearing with which it involved Europe at the start of the war.