Roughly, Europe's total trade in 1938—even with the help of feverish armament activity—was, in volume, less than 85 per cent. of the 1929 volume as compared with 96 per cent.
1937. Towards the end of the year it was falling fairly sharply.
This decrease is attributed partly to the German and Italian passion ior "autarchy," driving them to increase domestic output regardless of cost of thus reducing imports. It was also due to the upheaval among small-capitalist middlemen who in normal times finance, with the aid of bank loans, virtually the entire commerce of the world; they were badly hit by the successive shocks to business confidence arising from the threat of war, by the German campaign against the Jews, both at home and abroad, and by the disruption of old trade channels through government interference.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.