Summary and Conclusion

Abstract

During the first three and a half years after liberation The Netherlands, the longest enemy-occupied and most heavily war-damaged country in Western Europe, had to struggle ahead on its own, except for one short-term loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (with a negative security pledge clause attached), one long-term reconstruction loan from the World Bank, a modest drawing on the IMF and some miscellaneous credits. Unlike former enemy countries Germany and Japan, the country did not benefit from large U.S. dollar spending for post-war military and civil purposes. Intra-European commercial relations were severely hampered by quantitative trade and payments restrictions, and bilateral credit margins allowed by these countries were rather insignificant. At the same time, The Netherlands could not avoid assuming the burden of considerable net financing of overseas parts of the Kingdom, especially the East Indies (future Indonesia), where the modern sector of the economy had heavily suffered from the Japanese occupation.