Evening star., 1939-03-05
j. :. Goods Marketed
In Germany Through
Barter System
At Least $30,000,000
Annually Reported
Involved in Deals
aS the Associated Press.

8y the Associated tIeSS.
NEW YORK, March 4-United
States exporters were estimated
today by Wall Street experts to be
bartering annually at least $780,
100000 worth of American products
to Germany in exchange for Ger
man-manufactured goods.
OF this amount, it was said, $14,-
100000 represented cotton, an equal
sum represented copper, and the
remainder was accounted for to-
bacco, lard and small amounts of
oil, fruit and possibly wheat.
The figure given represents near
ly half the sum of last years i'm
ports from Germany which, total
ing $64,537 900, were regarded in
some quarters as closer representa-
ton of Americans private barter
ing arrangements with Germany.
In either case, the barterS were
said to represent a sizable propor-
ton of the SLOT $685. 900 worth of
goods which the United States sold
to Germany in 1888.
Arranged Privately.
Unlike the agreements Germany
has undertaken with many other
nations, particularly in South Amer
lea, the barters with the United
States are not Government ar
ranged. They are entered into solely
by individual American importers
who require certain manufactured
goods from Germany.
Germany, for her part, requires
cotton and copper particularly and
was said by one Wall Street source
to be 'in the market for any amount
of those materials, provided the
seller will purchase German goods
to a like value"
AS an inducement to this pur-
chase of German goods, the Amer
lean exporter gets substantial
bonus in the form of German cur
rency amounting, in effect, to price
cuts.
The method of operation was eX-
planned fundamentally as follows:
The management of large retail
store wants to buy German pottery.
In New York, he buys shipment
of American cotton going to Ger
many, obtaining title to that cotton.
Through brokers. the cotton is
sold to textile mills in Germany.
Payment in inland marks is
placed to the retail stores account
in one of the foreign exchange banks
in Berlin. Then the store uses these
inland marks to purchase the pot
terry which is forthwith shipped to
the United States.
The advantage of these INLAND"
marks-also called cotton, or copper,
or blocked, or trade marks-consti-
tutes the price cut" At the pres
ent rate of exchange, man with
$1,000 cash can buy $500 marks in
Germany, but he will get 5000 in
land marks in exchange for $1,000
worth of cotton.
Must Be Spent There.
The only difficulty is that inland"
means just what it says: Those
marks have no value outside Ger
many and must, consequently, be
spent right there.
OF course, not all the barter deal
ings are that simple. American
houses doing business with Germany
may get third parties into the pic
ture to absorb the marks and pay
off in dollars, pounds or francs.
The estimates on the probable
extent of the bartering came from
a variety of sources. Experts in the
frode said that "75 to 30 Der cent
at least" of the cotton which was
shipped from the United States to
Germany last year was sold for
inland marks. The Government fig
ure for those exports in 1888 was
$16,875,O0
AS for copper, the Bureau of For
eign and Domestic Commerce re-
ported Germany imported 74,334 tons
of the metal--worth about 15,000,-
OOO-from the United States in 1888.
A similar percentage of barter may
have entered into this transaction.
At the Copper Institute, it was
pointed out that only small per-
centage of this copper was mined
In the United States, but that most
of it was brought here solely for
refining before expectation.
A German source, closely connect
ed with the export trade, said Ger
many now is well supplied with
wheat and other grains and that
the acquisition of cotton and cop
per are her primary concerns, al
though the market is open for oil