第二次世界大戦期ライヒスバンクの戦後国際通貨構想 : 清算同盟構想の展開と破綻

抄録

This article deals with the activity of the Reichsbank in connection with postwar currency proposals. It tries to explain the discussion of the plans prepared by the Reichsbank, and the reason why in the end this discussion proved fruitless. In the early stage of the war, at the height of German success, the Reichsbank denied that there was anything worth defending about a monetary regime based on gold and developed European schemes. Emil PUHL, the Reichsbank Vice-President, envisaged the European Clearing Union. It was intended that the European economy would be tied together through a multilateralized clearing in place of bilateral agreements. However, the tide of the war turned, and it was clear that the postwar reordering would take place on the basis elaborated by the allies. The Reichsbank was much more interested in the Allied schemes for the postwar order. Per JACOBSSON, the chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements, was invited to Berlin in June 1943 to explain the currency plans of John M. KEYNES and Harry D. WHITE. PUHL preferred Keynes' plan to the White plan, because he recognized elements of the Reichsbank's plan in Keynes' plan for an International Clearing Union. The longer the war went on, the more illusory a clearing union became. It soon grew obvious that there was no possibility of implementing the plan. The large German clearing deficits formed an obstacle to the realization of the clearing union.