Trade in The Hitlerian Empire

Pavlos Giannelia

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, September-October 1940]

"International Commerce cannot prosper if its current is held up by barriers of excessive tariffs." So stated the memorandum Mr. Sumner Welles handed to Mr. Reynaud, during his visit to Europe this past Spring. Our esteemed British contemporary, Land and Liberty, thereupon wrote: "Neither France nor Great Britain, even between themselves, has shown the least intention meanwhile of reducing the tariffs and the trade obstruction."

Not only has this been the case, but much worse; neither the British nor the French Empires have applied the free trade principle among their own territories! Besides the internal customs duties (octrois), Greater France had tariff restrictions between European France and all parts of the French Empire.

Great Britain still has tariffs between England and the Dominions, between England and the Crown Colonies, and between all parts of the Empire.

What is the status of trade in the new Hitlerian Empire? German economists have consulted past German policies. In German history, the customs union of the Northern German States (Deutscher Zollverein) was the forerunner of the political union of the German Empire. The Third Reich has remained trustworthy to the customs union principle, and has made a certain application of it in the new Hitlerian Empire. Tariffs have indeed been introduced in the newly conquered territories, but they are employed in the opposite of the usual sense of "protection." Immediately after the conquest of every territory, a free flow of trade was allowed for goods imported from the new territories into the Altreich; and "protective" tariffs were maintained in the opposite direction that is, tariffs were imposed on goods going from the Altreich into every other part of the Hitlerian Empire.

This policy shows that the German economists, notwithstanding their opposition to free trade, realize that tariffs are more efficacious in handicapping the importing rather than the exporting country.

This "protection" was imposed immediately upon the conquest or annexation of Austria, Sudetenland, Bohemia- Moravia, Poland, probably Denmark and Norway, and probably also France. It was expected to be maintained for about a period of one year after every annexation, but will probably be continued as long as it is advantageous to the Reich.

A mutual benefit, and a strengthening of position, would have resulted from a complete free trade between France and Great Britain. It is to be hoped that Britain will yet learn the lesson. If she persists in maintaining the pernicious "protective" system, she will sooner or later learn that tariffs are not protection, but economic suicide.