Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
11 - Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Judgement on German economic policy during the great depression has been passed long ago. It is true that there have been repeated attempts to excuse the behaviour of those responsible by explaining it in terms of circumstances or of honourable motives. But the conclusion itself — that the policy represented a series of major mistakes — has as yet scarcely been challenged. This is especially true in the case of German monetary policy, and above all for the sequence of decisions to maintain the gold parity and thus also the parity against the dollar and the French franc. The decision not to alter the old Reichsmark parity against gold after Britain left gold on 20/21 September 1931 ushered in the last and most radical round of Brüning's deflationary policy. It led to the fourth emergency decree of 8 December 1931. The Reich government in any event regarded the enormous effort of the decreed lowering of costs as the German reply to the British measure.
Nevertheless, for the purpose of a critical analysis, it is useful to free oneself from the impression that the decision to adhere to parity virtually and of necessity led to all the subsequent and unsuccessful measures, and in particular to the failure to adopt a more active economic policy.
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- Information
- Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy , pp. 184 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991