Based on a wide range of archival sources, this book analyses the response of the most peripheral country in Western Europe, Franco's Spain, to the challenges of increasing economic interdependence from the end of World War II to the establishment of the EEC, 1945-57. In so doing, the author sheds new light on the fundamental question of the survival of the Franco regime and stimulates further discussion on the external factors responsible for Spain's pattern of economic growth after 1945.

Autorentext

Fernando Guirao is Jean Monnet Professor of History at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.

Inhalt

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Key to Archival References Introduction PART ONE: TRADE VERSUS POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION, 1945-47 Spain's Contribution to West European Economic Relief and [Early Phase of] Reconstruction The Exigencies of French and British Economic Reconstruction Trade Versus Politics: An Instructive Debate PART TWO: RARA AVIS: SPAIN AND THE MARSHALL PLAN, 1947-48 Import Requirements for National Reconstruction and Modernization Spain's Limited Financial Resources Was there an Alternative Course of Action? PART THREE: BILATERALISM WITHIN A MULTILATERAL CONTEXT, 1949 TO MID-1950S Avoiding the Collapse of Spain's Bilateral Trade Channels Financial Diplomacy: Spain and the European Payments Union Concluding Remarks Bibliography Index