Éamon de Valera advocated self-sufficiency and discouraged International trade, saying: "It was an important status symbol in the modern world for a country to produce her own goods and be self-sufficient." At the end of the civil war in 1923, the merchant fleet consisted of 127 ships. At the start of World War II in 1939, the fleet numbered only 56 ships. That 56 included the sailing ships taken out of retirement. Only 5% of imports were carried on Irish flagged vessels.