IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v61y2008i4p867-895.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The beginnings of Nazi autarky policy: the ‘National Pulp Programme’ and the origin of regional staple fibre plants1

Author

Listed:
  • JONAS SCHERNER

Abstract

In 1934, the Nazi regime decided to expand German staple fibre capacities significantly. The planned expansion expressed by the ‘National Pulp Programme’ was not only motivated by the balance of payments crisis at this time, but also by long‐term autarky considerations. However, private companies and the Nazi regime disagreed on the size of the cellulose fibre markets and on how risks were to be shared. Therefore the Nazi regime considered the foundation of privately owned but actually state controlled new suppliers as a way of influencing the private companies to comply with its demands. However, as far as the established companies' willingness to invest was concerned, this strategy did not prove particularly successful. These companies were disposed to invest but only according to their long‐term expectations regarding the potential staple fibre market given normal conditions; that is, with no import restrictions on natural fibres. Surprisingly, not only the big, established companies but also the private shareholders of the regional plants—often comparatively small textile companies—were not forced by the state to fulfil the requirements of the Nazi regime. Therefore these results suggest that the still‐prevailing command economy thesis is not supported by the evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas Scherner, 2008. "The beginnings of Nazi autarky policy: the ‘National Pulp Programme’ and the origin of regional staple fibre plants1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(4), pages 867-895, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:61:y:2008:i:4:p:867-895
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00425.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00425.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00425.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Overy,R. J., 1996. "The Nazi Economic Recovery 1932–1938," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521557672, September.
    2. Overy,R. J., 1996. "The Nazi Economic Recovery 1932–1938," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521552868, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Owen, Geoffrey, 2011. "Corporate strategy and national institutions: the case of the man-made fibres industry," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38627, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. repec:fan:istois:v:html10.3280/isto2021-043004 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Owen Geoffrey, 2011. "Corporate Strategy and National Institutions: The Case of the Man-Made Fibres Industry," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-59, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hartwell, Christopher A., 2019. "Short waves in Hungary, 1923 and 1946: Persistence, chaos, and (lack of) control," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 532-550.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:61:y:2008:i:4:p:867-895. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.