Financial Markets of Neutral Countries in World War II

Edited by the Association for Financial History Switzerland and Principality of Liechtenstein. This collection of articles constitutes a joint effort by a number of financial historians and economists to shed fresh light on the experiences of financial markets in key neutral countries during World War II. It examines the way in which different financial markets, their government guardians and regulators navigated the rough and ever-changing seas of the wartime military, geopolitical and economic environment. Due attention is also paid to the 1930s, which, in terms of international financial disintegration, national repercussions and responses, were in many ways an economic prelude to war. The articles in this book focus on the various financial markets and their specific relations with the Allied and Axis belligerents and fellow neutrals. Particular consideration is given to the way governments and market participants responded to the changing constraints and opportunities created by their economic and geopolitical situations and their exposure to international events. The six economies studied here in addition to Switzerland were chosen for their political and economic importance as neutral states and for their uniqueness. They include countries as diverse as Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, as well as the United States of America, which started off as a neutral, but subsequently became the most important belligerent power.