ABSTRACT
History thus shows that there are many different ways of handling overseas trade. It can be stimulated or restricted. I t can be caused to atrophy by promoting autarky, by currency restrictions and by a closed economy generally-a game of beggar-my-neighbour worked by closing 'other countries' export openings. There follows a chain reaction of retaliatory measures by former suppliers. The final result is the co-existence of a number of hermetically closed groups in which production is pursued regardless of cost, accompanied by so-called full employment and inflation. The standard of living declines, while the distortions attending this kind of dubious co-existence are intensified. In Germany
we had to experience all this personally and to drain the dregs until the spring of 1948.
