German Reparations, 1919 - 1932: A Historical Survey

by L. Gomes

Overview

This book provides a historical narrative to tell the story of interwar German reparations - the debates, controversies and diplomacy surrounding the issue from the 1919 Paris peace conference to the abandonment of reparations at the Lausanne Conference in 1932.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230238381
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/14/2010
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	255
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

LEONARD GOMES is a retired academic, he previously was a Reader in International Economics. He taught on a variety of economics courses at undergraduate and graduate levels, specialising in international economics. His main area of research lies in international economics and history of economic thought.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations vii

Introduction 1

1 Reparations and the Legacy of War 3

Synopsis - the reparations saga in a nutshell 3

1.1 Legacy of the Great War 4

1.2 What really happened at Paris 22

1.3 The Versailles settlement and the 'German problem' 31

2 Summits on Sums 47

2.1 La politique des casinos 47

2.2 The London Schedule of Payments 65

2.3 Significance of the figures 68

2.4 Feasibility of the London Schedule 71

3 Fulfilment Crises and Allied Disunity 84

3.1 A fraudulent bankruptcy? 84

3.2 Poincaré and 'the lure of the Ruhr' 104

3.3 The Ruhr occupation 117

4 From Dawes to Young 141

4.1 The Dawes Plan 141

4.2 Germany under Dawes: Reparations on credit 157

4.3 The Young Plan 166

5 The End of Reparations (and After) 192

5.1 Weimar's faltering economy and the slump 192

5.2 Germany's banking crisis and the end of reparations 203

5.3 An unresolved issue: Allied war debts 212

5.4 The Nazi debt default and post-war redemption 217

Appendix: Keynes, the Transfer Problem and German Reparations 228

A.1 The transfer problem: The Keynes-Ohlin debate 228

A.2 Keynes's anti-reparations campaign 233

Bibliography 241

Index 251