How the USA got rich
In 1913, the United States had a negative trade balance, and North American investments in the economies of other countries, mainly Latin American countries, were less than external public debt. At the end of 1913, North American capitals worth 2,065 billion dollars were placed abroad, and the States themselves owed 5 billion dollars. It must be said that the then dollars - the sample of 1873 of the year, were a real monetary unit, each dollar was equal to 1,50463 gr. pure gold. But, with the beginning of the First World War, the picture has changed radically. The USA from the debtor state became the creditor of the leading world powers.
The First World War claimed millions of lives, walked a devastating whirlwind through the territories of France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, and became for the American government a real manna from heaven. From 1 in August 1914 to 1 in January 1917, the United States provided loans to the warring powers for 1,9 billion dollars. Already in April, 1915, one of the owners of the financial empire of Morgan, Thomas Lamont, speaking to the press, noted that the US needs to help European allies as much as possible, since this will lead to the buyback by the Americans of their debt obligations to Great Britain and France. An even greater flow of loans to European countries went when the US itself entered the war. Until the end of World War I, the total volume of loans amounted to more than 10 billion dollars. Approximately 7 billion went to purchase weapons, ammunition, ammunition, various military materials. And all this was bought in the USA. The money remained in the States and stimulated its economy. It is clear that huge profits were obtained by financial magnates and industrialists. One of the outcomes of the First World War was the transformation of the United States from the world's largest debtor to the largest creditor. France and the United Kingdom, on the contrary, turned into debtors from the world's largest creditors.
In the case of France, the transformation of this country into a major debtor was due to the fact that protracted military operations took place on its territory, millions of workers were cut off from the national economy and the northeastern regions, where much of the heavy industry was concentrated, was under German occupation. By the beginning of the war, French gold reserves were estimated at 845 million dollars and they were spent in the first months of the First World War.
An interesting fact is that in informal conversations with their British partners, American statesmen assured the entire war and the first time after it that after the end of the war the United States would write off some of the debts, some would pass on to the defeated countries. The payment schedule of the debtor countries was proposed to be linked to the schedule for receiving reparation payments from the defeated powers. The situation for the debtor countries cleared up only in March 1920, when the US financial department responded to a message from the British finance minister that the States did not care about the delay in payments from Germany, England should pay the US on time. In a letter from 3 in November 1920, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asked US President Woodrow Wilson to review the terms of payment. However, the response of the American president was maintained in approximately the same spirit as the message of the financial department. As a result, the issue of military debt was submitted to the Genoa Conference. It was decided that those 4 billion 600 million dollars, which the UK owed to the United States, would be paid within 62 years. In this case, before the 1932, the British had to pay 3% per annum, and from 1933 to the end of the payments - 3,5%. As a result, the amount of interest has become higher than the amount of the debt itself. England had to pay 11 billion. 105 million. Dollars. This is despite the fact that most of the German reparations received France - 54,4%, and England received 23%.
Berlin was obliged to pay annually to the winner-winners for 650 million dollars, of which 149 million 760 thousand dollars was due to England. Before 1933, London was supposed to transfer to the Americans annually on 138 million dollars. Thus, almost all the reparations of Germany, which relied England, absorbed the United States. However, already in 1923, Germany could not pay a single mark. France, in response, occupied the Ruhr. The British convened the London Conference, which in August 1924 of the year approved a new reparation plan for Germany. It was developed by an international committee of experts led by American banker Charles Gate Dawes.
The plan was adopted under US pressure. To start the mechanism of the German economy, according to the Dawes plan, Berlin not only paid reparations, but at the same time received an international loan. Initially, Germany was given a loan in 200 million dollars (110 million provided by American banks) to stabilize the brand. Before 1929, Germany received loans in the amount of 21 billion marks, mainly from the USA. Therefore, for the first year of the implementation of the Dawes Plan, Berlin had to independently pay only 200 million gold marks. The Dawes Plan found that in 1924, the Germans would pay reparations in the amount of 1 billion gold marks (which was then approximately 238 million dollars), in the first few years the amount grew to 1,75 billion gold marks and 1928 billion marks. Thus, the annual payments to Germany were significantly reduced, and now the British have to pay most of the annual payments to the United States from their own pockets. Moreover, Berlin paid these sums irregularly, and since the beginning of the 2,5-ies stopped paying altogether.
At the Hague Reparations Conference on 1929 — 1930. The second reparations payment plan of Germany (Young Plan) was adopted. The United States did not officially participate in the conference, but in fact initiated the Jung plan. The plan was prepared by a group of financial experts led by American Owen Jung and reflected the interests of private, primarily American, lenders of Germany. The United States put pressure on conference participants to get this plan adopted. Jung's plan provided for a certain reduction in the size of annual payments - on average to 2 billion marks, abolished the reparation tax on industry and reduced transport taxation, and the destruction of foreign control bodies. He also envisaged a reduction in the total amount of German payments to 113,9 billion gold marks with a maturity of 37 years (possible revision in the future). However, this plan was only valid for one year. In 1931, the Reich Chancellor Heinrich Bruening was able to impose a moratorium on reparation payments and the more the Germans did not pay anything. Another blow to the finances of Great Britain was inflicted by the USSR, which refused to recognize the debts of the tsarist and provisional governments - 13,2 billion gold rubles (and taking into account the debts of the governments of Kolchak, Wrangel, Miller and other "governments" of Russia - 18,5 billion gold rubles). As a result of World War I, the leading world powers — Britain, France, Germany, and Italy — became indebted to the United States.
More US earned on World War II. 1 September 1939, Germany attacked Poland, already on September 16 the Polish government and high command fled the country to Romania. Together with them, the country's gold reserves were also taken out of Poland. Soon he came from Romania to France. In France, gold was also defeated Belgium. After France defeated, the Polish, Belgian, part of the gold of the Netherlands, and most importantly, the gold reserves of the French National Bank, which at the end of May 1940, 2 billion 477 million, were exported to French Africa. In November, Americans landed 1942 in Dakar; in 1943, gold was transported to the USA and moved to the Fort Knox storehouses. Earlier, the Americans took the Norwegian gold. True, it was not so much, before the German occupation, there was gold for 84 million dollars in the country.
In addition, it should be noted that gold, silver and various jewelry from Europe, as if flocked to the United States. Their owners, individuals, companies, transferred their savings to a safe place - the United States, because the war was raging in Europe. So, if in October 1939 was stored in the US Federal Reserve, gold was worth 17 billion dollars, by February 1940, this amount had already increased by a billion (the then dollar was about the same as 25-26 modern). With the beginning of active hostilities in Europe, the influx of gold in the United States has grown even more. So, only for 10 – 14 in May 1940 of the year in the USA gold was received for 46 million dollars. When it became obvious that France was doomed, the flow increased even more - for June 3 – 4 gold in the United States came in for 500 million dollars.
It is also necessary that American firms earned on the financing of the Third Reich. During the war, the United States was enriched by supplying weapons and military materials to the allies. When the war ended, the United States lent war-ravaged European countries already to borrow. For loans, Europeans bought American goods. The US economy grew, money came back and was given back to growth already younger partners. So, December 6 1945 of the year between the United States and England signed a loan agreement, which entered into force on July 15 1946 of the year. According to him, the British received 3 billion 750 million dollars. The 6-i article of this agreement prohibited England to take loans from other countries until 1951, and use money to pay off other loans. 9-th article forbade the use of this loan for the purchase of non-American goods. The United States immediately after the entry into force of this treaty raised the prices of their goods. England lost up to 28% of the loan amount due to higher commodity prices. Part of the amount was lost due to the exchange of dollars for pounds (more than 6% of the amount).
In 1947, US Secretary of State George C. Marshall launched the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). The plan came into effect in 1948 year and covered 17 European states. In fact, the United States put them under their financial and economic control.
Thus, after the Second World War, the USA became the richest country in the world, having previously robbed, robbed and enslaved a significant part of the world. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that for this purpose the American financial-industrial groups took an active part in the preparation and kindling of the fires of the First and Second World Wars. Two world wars allowed the United States to establish financial control over the planet.
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