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Figure 3: Swiss foreign trade with the German Reich
(Nominal monthly figures in absolute terms and on rolling average basis, in Swiss francs)
90 000 000
80 000 000
70 000 000
60 000 000
50 000 000
40 000 000
30 000 000
20 000 000
10 000 000
Jan 39 Jan 40 Jan 41 Jan 42 Jan 43 Jan 44 Jan 45
Imports Exports Rolling 5-month average (Imports) Roling 5-month average (Exports)
Source: Swiss monthly foreign trade statistics (Monatsstatistik des Aussenhandels der Schweiz),
compiled from various volumes; Meier/Frech/Gees/Kropf, Aussenwirtschaftspolitik, 2002, (Publications
of the ICE), chapter 5.2.
oration billion» by the Allies after the end of the war) took the form of a state
payment guarantee for Swiss exporters. The Swiss clearing loans made it
possible for the German and Italian armies to fund their large-scale armaments
purchases in Switzerland. Moreover, the Nazi authorities set up a «European
central clearing system» («Europäisches Zentralclearing») which gave them
control of Swiss foreign trade with the occupied states. Even in the first few
months of the war, the Axis powers were already trying to obtain loans for
supplies from Switzerland under the terms of the clearing agreement. This
corresponded to a general strategy of tying trading partners into the German
war economy. In summer 1940, after the fall of France, German pressure on
Switzerland grew, as Switzerland found itself almost completely hemmed in by
the Axis, and focused its export activities on Germany to a considerable extent.
Light metals, weapons, machinery, textiles, and chemical and pharmaceutical
products were among the most important sectors of the export economy. In
return, Switzerland received large quantities of coal, raw materials for textiles,
pig iron, non-ferrous metals, chemical products and machine components. The
trend in exports to Germany is set out in figure 3. This shows how the German
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