Postwar Europe was like a medieval market town, trying to do business with 16 different kinds of money. Hungry Britain, the ironmonger and coal merchant, was earning more German marks than it knew what to do with, but not enough kroner to buy eggs and bacon from Farmer Denmark. Italy, the green grocer, was picking up all the guilders it could use by selling oranges to Holland, but couldn't buy steel from France because it didn't have enough French francs. Almost every nation's larder was empty of the food and manufactures which its next-door neighbor was anxious to sell at...
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