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Well, in the first place, we have to know the power of these corporations and you will see that "We The People" is a very nice story but only a story for now.What is the true face of the financial network that controls the world economy?Although it was both known and expected, finally, a thorough study of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has been able to identify, in the analysis, a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks and financial institutions, which have a disproportionate power unimaginable about the global economy, at the same time very harmful and dangerous for the future of humanity.The study is not without criticism but, as confirmed by many analysts of complex systems, is being useful to unravel and understand how the global economy is controlled and who holds it. It is a big step to be able to elaborate policies -when politicians are responsible and honest with their constituents and defend democracy against the plutocracy that they try to corrupt- that contribute to making global capitalism more stable and I would add that, necessarily , if we abide by physical laws of nature and intergenerational solidarity, it should also be sustainable.The study was conducted more than a five years ago by a trio of experts in the analysis of complex systems of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. It is the first deep study I know that has gone beyond ideologies, to empirically identify this omnipresent and colossal power network that operates worldwide. It does this by means of good sources of information and mathematical algorithms that are used to model natural systems and to know the connections of subordinations and business interdependencies between the Transnational Companies of the world, TNCS.It is true that, previously, some previous studies had found that a few multinational companies were owners of large plots of power in the world economy, but what has been done with this study in an unprecedented step to understand how to get out of the Third Economic depression in which we are immersed, without that we must suffer a strong global financial crash, due to the huge financial bubble that has been created, and where all countries and large companies maintain an unstable balance, subject to excessive leverage financial we all know.The Zurich team worked with a database that contained a list of 37 million companies and investors from around the world. From this database a very detailed information was obtained on all the 43,060 transnational companies, as well as the property relations that linked these companies to each other. Based on this analysis, it is how they were able to build a model that linked these transnational companies with the networks of investment and financial companies that controlled them. The operating income of each company was also obtained in order to map the structure of global economic power. All a work of art!The study revealed the existence of a core of 1,318 companies whose owners were also owners of other companies with which they were linked. It was found that each of the 1,318 had direct ownership links with an average of twenty other companies. Moreover, although these companies accounted for 20% of global operating revenues, it was shown that these 1318 companies came to collectively own, through their shares and equity in companies, the majority of the large companies in the world. First line and large manufacturing companies around the world, accounting for 60% of the world's income. In other words, these companies controlled the "real" economy.When, finally, the team of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich managed to further refine their analysis of the entangled and, in turn, leveraged financial network that owns corporate ownership, it found that there was a kind of "Mega Entity" formed by only 147 companies that were even more closely united, and that controlled 40% of the total wealth of the corporate-owned financial network, worldwide. Thus, less than 1% of these companies, in their vast majority financial companies, were able to control 40% of the entire business financial network. Why fight for democracy and freedoms if, in the end, we have fallen into the nefarious and cruel dictatorship of the richest in the system ?It is worrying for the future of the economy, and even for democracy itself, that a small number of companies or people not only control the global economy, but with their ideas, actions and priorities can contribute so much to the control of stability economic, worldwide. The negative impacts that this concentration of power produces on the world economy are great and worrisome. Do not forget that for the financial network the first objective is profit maximization and, sometimes, at an extremely expensive cost for the rest of the social strata and countries.These impacts directly affect the behavior of the economic system, and its ability to control it, so it is seen as very necessary to continue deepening on the subject. Let's not forget that, in theory, the logic of financial power is to accumulate power and money and that, many times, is opposed to the logic of political power that should be to ensure the welfare of humanity and prepare a sustainable future.When politicians enter the list of these companies, as it happens in many cases, it is when a plutucratic regime is instituted that attends to freedoms, to well-being, to the preparation of a sustainable future, and denatures the own democracy. This is the reason why, first of all, we have to fight, with great zeal, against the political corruption that has been established.In any case, when applying effective anti-crisis policies, it is essential to previously identify the architecture of global economic power, so that the results of the analysis contribute to the design of policies that allow the system to be more stable and sustainable.When discovering the vulnerable aspects of the current system, the professionals of the strategy, where the weight of the prospectivists should be important, could suggest measures to prevent future collapses that extend throughout the economy and establish the strategic lines of action to exit of the Third Economic Depression and move towards a sustainable economy.It is obvious that global measures will have to be taken to limit the accumulation of power and the excessive control and ownership of transnational corporations - especially the financial "Mega Entity" - as well as to introduce "antitrust" laws as they work in some countries, at the national level. Similarly, in order to avoid situations that are traumatic for humanity, laws will have to be established - globally and as soon as possible - to rationalize and adapt the operation of the financial sector to a sustainable economy (scrupulously separating the retail sector from the banking sector). investment sector), give priority to policies that promote sustainable development, strongly penalize activities contrary to the fight against Climate Change and hinder sustainable development, etc.This long task, if there is support from the people and political will, I consider it an obligatory task if we want to guarantee to future generations a sustainable future where it is worth living. The design of this transition policy towards a sustainable economy would not be very difficult to elaborate. It would be a task to which many prospectivists like me, we would contribute to its design, application by phases, control and improvement, with great pleasure and vocation.The 50 first companies that make up the financial "Mega Entity" that controls the world economy:1. Barclays plc2. Capital Group Companies Inc3. FMR Corporation4. AXA5. State Street Corporation6. JP Morgan Chase & Co7. Legal & General Group plc8. Vanguard Group Inc9. UBS AG10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc11. Wellington Management Co LLP12. Deutsche Bank AG13. Franklin Resources Inc14. Credit Suisse Group15. Walton Enterprises LLC16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp17. Natixis18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc19. T Rowe Price Group Inc20. Legg Mason Inc21. Morgan Stanley22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc23. Northern Trust Corporation24. Société Générale25. Bank of America Corporation26. Lloyds TSB Group plc27. Invesco plc28. Allianz SE29. TIAA30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company31. Aviva plc32. Schroders plc33. Dodge & Cox34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc *35. Sun Life Financial Inc36. Standard Life plc37. CNCE38. Nomura Holdings Inc39. The Depository Trust Company40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance41. ING Groep NV42. Brandes Investment Partners LP43. Unicredito Italiano SPA44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan45. Vereniging Aegon46. ​​BNP Paribas47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc48. Resona Holdings Inc49. Capital Group International Inc50. China Petrochemical Group Company

at one time during World War II Spain was acting as the Protecting Power for Japan in the continental United States, while Sweden acted for her in Hawaii, and Switzerland in American Samoa. HMMM These are the three countries that were involved in the fair treatment of POWs in the Pacific area of the war.https://www.usnwc.edu/getattachment/3264c3d1-de9f-4e0f-b634-cc2adbc88692/Prisoners-of-War-and-the-Protecting-Power.aspxRG 84: SwitzerlandState Department and Foreign Affairs Records Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84) Switzerland The Swiss Federal Council, concerned about a general European war, proclaimed the neutrality of the Swiss Federation on March 21, 1938, shortly after Germany's violation of Austrian territory. In December 1938, fearful of the results of the Munich pact, the Swiss passed a law for the defense of the Republic and the Constitution, conferring extraordinary powers on the Swiss Federal Council.https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-84-switzerland.htmlRG 84: SwitzerlandState Department and Foreign Affairs RecordsRecords of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84)SwitzerlandThe Swiss Federal Council, concerned about a general European war, proclaimed the neutrality of the Swiss Federation on March 21, 1938, shortly after Germany's violation of Austrian territory. In December 1938, fearful of the results of the Munich pact, the Swiss passed a law for the defense of the Republic and the Constitution, conferring extraordinary powers on the Swiss Federal Council. In August 1939, the Swiss made a firm declaration of neutrality, and alerted its frontier troops. On August 30, the Swiss Federal Assembly elected General Henri Guisan as commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army. Within days of the Germany invasion of Poland the Swiss Federal Council provided for a general mobilization and called-up 450,000 men. Guisan then set about erecting a defensive system to protect Swiss borders and letting it be known that any invasion of Switzerland would be more expensive than its occupation warranted.When the war began the Germans already had broad economic dealings with the Swiss. And these economic relations increased during most of the war. German penetration into Swiss industry for cartel, tax evasion or Safehaven purposes, was accomplished principally through the establishment in Switzerland of subsidiary companies of powerful German firms. By war's end there were about 350 direct subsidiaries of German firms established in Switzerland. In addition, German participation in Swiss firms, particularly in chemicals, electricity, and fuel was considerable. German capital was invested in manufacturing and sales plants in Switzerland, but the greatest portion of German capital was in Swiss companies, which held German patents and the shares of nominally Swiss, but actually German-dominated subsidiaries. These companies also controled the international networks of the parent German companies. Over half of the total German capital in Switzerland was invested in holding companies for I.G. Farben, Merck, Siemens, Osram, and Henkel companies.I.G. Farben and Henkel had their major holding companies for foreign subsidiary control located in Switzerland. I.G. Chemie controlled the intricate dummy and cloak network of I.G. Farben firms in Switzerland, Norway, and the United States. Merck, I.G. Farben, and Henkel had chemical and electro-chemical factories in Switzerland. German investments were also made in the iron, steel, and coal industries and in commercial trade, as well as in the paper and publishing trade.Surrounded on all sides by the Axis powers, Switzerland attempted to hold on to its traditional policy of neutrality. This was quite difficult, for numerous reasons including the basic fact that much of Switzerland's food and all their fuel had to be imported, as well as raw materials. Additionally, the Swiss were reliant on Italy for use of its ports. Thus, on August 9, 1940, Germany and Switzerland signed a trade agreement that provided that Germany supply Switzerland with raw materials, including coal and iron. In return, the Swiss agreed to allow the Germans to transit across its territories to bring in goods from Italy.Switzerland, during 1941 and 1942, was drawn more even more completely into Germany's trade orbit than the other neutrals, and by 1943, Germany absorbed nearly a third of all Swiss exports- primarily manufactured items that required small amounts of raw materials, large amounts of capital, and highly skilled labor. These included items, for which Swiss watch and machine tool industries were famous, that could not be produced at all in Germany or not in sufficient quantities to meet wartime needs. Switzerland provided Germany with arms, ammunition, and machinery, including locomotives as well as agricultural products. Allied bombing campaigns eventually forced Germany to move some of its arms factories to the safety of Swiss territory.In addition, Switzerland annually exported to Germany one-half billion kilowatts of electricity, or about 40 percent of the total power supply of southern Germany, and Swiss hydroelectric power annually produced 16,000 tons of aluminum and aluminum products for Germany during the war. Moreover, the unprecedented use by Germany of the Swiss railway to transport goods to and from Italy (apart from the transit of actual materials which Switzerland banned) allowed large quantities of raw materials, foodstuffs, chemicals, and other materials to be transported to Italy and permitted Germany to mitigate some of the effects of the Allied control of the Mediterranean Sea.It should be noted that despite the Allies establishing a black list of Swiss firms who traded with the Axis, the Swiss sold to the Axis and the Allies alike; its factories producing precision instruments, fuses, clocks and watches, and many other items. In fact Swiss trade with the Allies was great. The United State received from Switzeland during the war a number of Swiss products vital to its own wartime economy, most particularly watches and jewel bearings. In 1943 and 1944, a third of all Swiss watches were exported to the United States (nearly nine million altogether); with the result being that a number of American watch factories could convert to more critical manufacturing. The United States even acquired a considerable amount of gold from Switzerland.Switzerland, more than any other European country, served as a refuge and center for Nazi financial operations. The leading Swiss banks served as international bankers to the Germans, and as links with Germany's network of foreign holdings and interests. Swiss francs were made available to Germany by Swiss banks' purchase of German gold. Other foreign currencies necessary for German war efforts and trade outside Germany were also made available to Germany. According to one historian, by the end of 1944, "it was estimated that German investments and accounts in Switzerland amounted to $600,000,000. It was also believed that considerable amounts of German assets were represented in securities, currencies, jewels, works of art, etc., held in Swiss safety deposit boxes. German real estate holdings in Switzerland were thought to be worth $62,500,000..." "Privately owned German accounts were reported to be in excess of 500 million Swiss francs. These," Margaret Clarke wrote, "were easy to cloak since the Secrecy Act permitted Swiss banks to hide ownership under numbered accounts." (Note 93)Despite its assistance to the Axis, Germany and Italy often complained about the delay the Swiss took in filling their orders and the pro-Allied sentiments of the Swiss population, press and radio. The Germans were also displeased that Switzerland was a haven for spies, plotters against Hitler and the Reich, as well as a haven for Jewish and other refugees.Switzerland was indeed a major operational center for both Allied and Axis intelligence services. During the war Switzerland was the center of intelligence battles among the Axis and Allies intelligence units. Swiss counterintelligence arrested 387 spies, mostly Swiss, but including 100 Germans were brought to trial of whom 17 were executed. Allen Dulles, the OSS Station Chief in Bern, from 1942 to 1945 (with OSS posts at Geneva, Zurich, Basel, and Lugano), British Intelligence operatives, and intelligence sources from many Axis and Allied countries used Switzerland as major place of operations during the war. (Note 94)Switzerland, with a long humanitarian history and surrounded by Axis powers or Axis-dominated territory, still was a haven for refugees during the war. By May 1945, there were 115,000 refugees, interned military personnel, and escaped prisoners of war in Swiss camps. Altogether some 400,000 refugees and emigrants reached or passed through the country. (Note 95)On December 19, 1943, after intense Allied pressure, an Allied-Swiss agreement was reached whereby the Swiss agreed to directly and indirectly limit their exports to Germany. In return, the Allies loosened their economic blockade, lifting an embargo on all navicerts and export licenses, including food, which the Allies instituted in March 1943, and promised to quit blacklisting suspected Swiss firms unless specific proof of violations arose.German defeats and Allied pressure resulted in Switzerland, on October 1, 1944, agreeing to stop the export of all arms and ammunition, as well as airplane aprts and other military supplies. Not long afterwards the Swiss closed the Simplon tunnel to transit traffic, through it continued to keep open the St. Gotthard route for the Germans.The American Government in late 1944 and early 1945, as part of the Safehaven Program, attempted to have Switzerland adhere to the Bretton Woods Resolution VI and to refrain from dealings with Germany. As a result of U.S.-U.K. negotiations with the Swiss in August 1944, Switzerland drastically reduced its exports of strategic items such as ammunition, locomotives, automobiles, diesel engines, and machinery to Germany. The Swiss also agreed to a ban on the transit of all war materials between Italy and Germany, including various categories of loot. In addition, the Swiss Government in February 1945 froze German assets and on March 2, the Swiss put a prohibition on importing and exporting foreign currencies.In February 1945 an Allied negotiation team, led by Lauchlin Currie, Assistant to President Roosevelt, arrived in Bern to discuss Swiss trade with Germany and Safehaven issues. A month of difficult negotiations culminated in an exchange of letters on March 8, between the Allied delegation and the Swiss setting out a list of blocking measures the Swiss had taken or would take againt Germany and its Axis partners. The Swiss Government agreed to freeze all German assets in Switzerland, including those held through Swiss nationals; undertake a census of German assets; prohibit the importation, exportation, and dealing in all foreign currencies; and restrict Swiss purchase of gold from Germany. The Swiss also undertook to prevent their territory from being used for the disposal or concealment of assets taken illegally or under duress during the war. Further, the Swiss affirmed that, within the framework of Swiss (present and future), every facility would be accorded to dispossessed owners to claim their assets found in Switzerland.The Swiss did, however, object to adhering to Resolution VI. Further, the Swiss were not persuaded to reveal the facts of the census of German assets, nor were they willing to reveal all the facts regarding future transactions with the Germans, make Swiss governmental machinery available to Allied inspectors and prosecutors, and allow their nationals to act as Allied agents against German interests. The Swiss regarded the Allies demands as contrary to their interests and position as a neutral.Tensions over the interpretation and fulfillment of that agreement soon emerged and continued through the remainder of 1945. The U.S. Legation in Bern reported in May 1945 that subsequent to the Currie Mission, the Swiss purchased 3,000 kilograms of gold from Germany. It had arrived in Bern on the morning of April 6, 1945. Worse still for American authorities was the Swiss assertion that the purchase was not looted gold, despite the clear Allied policy since February 1944 to regard all gold coming from Germany as looted gold.Early in 1946, the United States, Great Britain, and France invited Switzerland to send representatives to Washington D.C. to discuss the issues flowing from the Paris Reparations Conference of November-December 1945. The urgent desire on the part of Britain and France to revive commerce with Switzerland after the war made them reluctant to join in tough economic measures against Switzerland and caused serious policy differences with the United States. For its part, Switzerland held to its own interpretation of international law and would not accept Allied claims to German assets and monetary gold in Switzerland.Negotiations began in early March 1946. On the eve of these negotiations the United States estimated that up to $579 million of monetary gold had been looted in Europe by the Nazis and that Germany shipped around $400 million in gold (estimated that $289 million had been looted) to Switzerland, mostly to the Swiss National Bank, during the war. Of that $400 million, Americn officials estimated that some $138 million had been "washed" through Switzerland and reexported to Portugal and Spain. But the Allies were not certain how much German and Nazi looted gold remained in Switzerland at the end of the war. Their estimates ranged from $200 million to as much as $398 million.The Allied negotiators, in the face of Swiss intransignece and Allied interest in resuming commercial relations with Switzerland, as well as a new postwar United States emphasis on rebuilding war-torn Europe, reduced their negotiating postion first to $130 million, the amount of the Allied estimate of the looted Belgian central bank gold. In late April 1946, the Allies sought to break the stalemate with a proposal calling for Switzerland to provide $130 million in monetary gold and giving the Allies two-thirds of the revenues from the liquidation of German assets in Switzeland. Walter Stucki, head of the Swiss delegation, responded by breking off the negotiations. The amount the Allies sought was the reduced to $88 million, the amount of looted Belgian gold ultimately acknowledged by the Swiss.The negotiations resumed in early May 1946 with a two-fold Swiss proposal. One part provided for a Swiss payment of $58.1 for the monetary gold in Switzeland. The United States Government decided to accept this $58 million figure. The second part of the agreement was to divide the results of the liquidation of German assets on a 50-50 basis. United States estimates of German external assets in Switzeland ranged from $250 million to $750 million, compared to $250,000 conceded by the Swiss. No total amount of assets was agreed to, nor would the Swiss give the Allies control over the identification of the assets.After consulting the Secretary of Treasury Vinson, Secretary of War Patterson, Senior Asistant Secretary of State Clayton, and with Senator Harley Kilgore, Randolph Paul and his negotiators decided that the United States was not willing to resort to economic sanctions to achieve better agreement. Thus, after the British and French governments agreed, the Allied-Swiss Accord was signed in Washington, D.C. on May 26, 1946 in the form of a text with a number of side notes, including a commitment by the Swiss to look "sympathetically" at assisting stateless victims through the recovery of heirless assets for their benefit.Almost immediately after signing the Washington Accord, the United States Government began the process of unblocking frozen Swiss assets in the United States. At the same time, serious problems arose between the Allies and Switerland over Swiss implementation, primarily relating to a fair Reichsmark-Swiss franc rate of exchange. Because of this problem, it was not until 1952 an agreement was reached on the terms and procedures for the liquidation of German external assets. The Swiss, however, immediately turned over $58 million in gold to the Tripartite Gold Commission.The Allied-Swiss agreement of August 1952 called for a lump-sum settlement of $28 million for liquidating German assets in Switzerland. This figure was far less than that forseen in the 1946 Washington Accord. This final lump settlement was reduced by $4.7 million that the Swiss had advanced in settlement in 1948. (Note 96)Records of the U.S. Legation in Bern, SwitzerlandRG 84: SwedenState Department and Foreign Affairs Records Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84) Sweden Sweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance. In June 1940 Sweden signed a transit agreement with Germany allowing goods and troops to transit Sweden on their way from Norway to Finland.https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-84-sweden.htmlRG 84: SwedenState Department and Foreign Affairs RecordsRecords of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84)SwedenSweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance. In June 1940 Sweden signed a transit agreement with Germany allowing goods and troops to transit Sweden on their way from Norway to Finland. German soldiers on rotation to and from the war front made about 250,000 trips across Swedish territory, as late as August 1943. Moreover, the Swedish Navy escorted German convoys in the Baltic.The Germans also increased their economic and financial ties to Sweden. When the war begun Germans had over 130 corporations, or groups of corporations in Sweden that were outright branches and subsidiaries of German firms. There were also firms that were believed to be financed by German corporations of German nationals. These included AEG, Krupp, the Siemens Group, I.G. Farben, and Telefunken Gesellschaft. In addition, there were over 170 Swedish corporations, or group of corporations, to varying degrees had an identity of interest with German corporations, such as patent and trademark agreements, "dummy" and "cloaking" activities, cartel agreements, contractual relationships, and direct representation of German firms, e.g., through Swedish sales agencies.German influence was significant in Swedish industry, such as iron-ore and mining, coal import and distribution, machine and machine tool manufacture, forestry, chemical raw materials manufacture, shipping and shipbuilding, and steel. The Germans also had real estate investments in Sweden.Germany's war effort depended significantly upon its imports of raw materials and goods from the neutral nations. Sweden's exports of ball-bearings to Germany were vitally important, but were even overshadowed during the early years of the war when Sweden supplied Germany with 40 percent of its iron-ore before imports of iron ore from other European countries reduced this dependency.Despite the close economic ties to Germany and the transit agreement with Germany, Sweden provided a refugee for those escaping Germany, as well as Soviet, oppression. Most of the Jews from Denmark were smuggled across the Sound into Sweden.Once the tide of battle changed, Sweden was relatively more responsive to Allied pressure to curtail its trade with the Germans. An Allied-Sweden agreement of September 1943 eventually brought about a progressive, substantial curtailment of Swedish commerce with Germany. Under the agreement, the United States and Great Britain agreed to allow an increase in exports to Sweden, including oil and rubber, in exchange for which Sweden agreed to cancel the transit of German military material and troops across Sweden, further reduce iron ore exports, end Swedish naval escorting of German ships in the Baltic, and reduce ball-bearing exports.During the last half of 1943 and the early months of 1944, the United States sought to cripple Germany's ability to continue the war by carrying out a concentrated and costly bombing campaign against ball-bearing production in Germany combined with trade negotiations, including preclusive purchasing arrangements, intended to cut off Swedish ball-bearings to Germany. The United States bombing campaign reduced German ball-bearing production, but German industrial countermeasures and improvisations warded off any serious consequences. Moreover, the September 1943 agreement, while reducing exports of ball-bearings, neglected to impose restrictions on exports of high-quality steel used to manufacture ball-bearings. Thus, by allowing Sweden to provide Germany with ball-bearing steel, it offset the drop in the Swedish export of finished ball-bearings.During the remainder of the war Sweden continued to pursue a policy which was generally accommodating to the Allies and unhelpful towards Germany. And the unremitting Allied diplomatic pressure and the crumbling of the Nazi war effort moved Sweden gradually to reduce and ultimately to end its trade with Germany. All Swedish trade with Germany halted completely in November 1944.The American Government in late 1944 and early 1945, as part of the Safehaven Program, attempted to have Swedes adhere to the Bretton Woods Resolution VI and to refrain from dealings with Germany. In November 1944, Sweden adopted new exchange regulations which had the effect of blocking capital transfers. The Swedish Government's Foreign Capital Control Office, which had adopted tightened exchange control regulations in November 1944, made great progress in identifying German properties and eliminating German influences from Sweden's economy. But Sweden offered no guarantee that the findings of its census of German external assets would be made available to the Allies. And the Swedish Government did not agree to accept Bretton Woods Resolution VI, and rejected all but two of the specific Safehaven requests made by the Allies.By April 1945, Swedish officials had assured British and American diplomats that in response to Allied wartime statements on gold and assets, Sweden would freeze German assets and restore looted property. At that time the Allied estimates of German external assets amounted to roughly $90 million and looted gold sold to Sweden by Germany ranged between $18.5 million and $22.7 million.By early 1946 the Swedish Parliament had adopted legislation necessary to control German property in Sweden and was working cooperatively with Allied representatives to quantify German assets and wartime gold shipments. The Swedish government consistently rejected, however, the Allied assertion of Allied Control Council Law No. 5, vesting control in the Council over German external assets.The difference on the application of international law prolonged negotiations between Allied and Swedish representatives, that began in Washington D.C. in late March 1946. But in early July 1946, they concluded an agreement that immediately provided $12.5 million in liquidated German assets to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees to rehabilitate and resettle the non- repatriable victims of Nazism, agreed to provide $18 million as reparations to the IARA, and assigned the remaining $36 million in liquidated German assets for the assistance of the British and United States occupation forces in Germany to forestall disease and unrest, and to finance purchases essential for the German economy. Agreement was also reached on the restitution by Sweden of $8 in gold tentatively identified as having been looted by Germany from the Belgium. (Note 91)Implementation of the July 1946 Accord stretched over the next eight years. Although the Swedes were prompt in providing more than $12 million to the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees for the succor of the non-repatriable victims of Nazi persecution and $36 million was used in Sweden and elsewhere for essential commodities for occupied Germany, Swedish negotiators haggled with the Allies and the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency until 1955 over how to distribute the remaining $18 million for reparation. The promised payment of $8 million in Belgian gold to the Tripartite Gold Commission was delayed by Sweden until December 1949.Allied-Swedish negotiations regarding $9.7 million in Dutch gold, which began after the July 1946 Accord, dragged on until 1955, with the Swedish negotiators arguing that the gold had been acquired before the January 1943 London Declaration on looted gold. In April 1955, after Swedish and Dutch officials met in Washington, D.C. and the Dutch claim was proved conclusive, Sweden transferred about $6.8 million in gold to the Tripartite Gold Commission. (Note 92)Records of the U.S. Embassy, Stockholm SwedenCivilian Agency Records RG 84State Department and Foreign Affairs Records Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84) Spain Spain, led by Francisco Franco, began the war as an avowed non-belligerent, and only in October 1943, did it formally declare neutrality. Franco and his government openly sympathized with Hitler and Mussolini ideologically and out of gratitude for their support against the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. But even if Spain wanted to assist the Axis it was exhausted from the Spanish Civil War.https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-84-spain.htmlRecords of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84)SpainSpain, led by Francisco Franco, began the war as an avowed non-belligerent, and only in October 1943, did it formally declare neutrality. Franco and his government openly sympathized with Hitler and Mussolini ideologically and out of gratitude for their support against the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. But even if Spain wanted to assist the Axis it was exhausted from the Spanish Civil War. Also, because of the sea blockade, Spain was reliant on the Allies for food, fuel, and raw materials. Spain did, however, helped the Axis by servicing their planes, allowing their agents to operate in Madrid, sent a military unit, the "Blue Division," to fight with Germany against the Russians, and early in the war allowed German U-boats to resupply and refuel covertly at Cadiz and Vigo, but withdrew this permission in the face of fierce Allied protests.Germany, who had always had relatively close economic and financial ties with Spain, increased its economic penetration in Spain once the Nazis came to power in 1933. In order to wage total war, the Nazis needed to import products like foodstuffs, iron ore, ferro-alloys, etc., and to assure a continuing supply, the Germans in Spain had to obtain an economic interest in the production and marketing of those products. There were two German banks in Spain, the Banco Aleman Transatlantico-the Spanish branch of the Deutsche Uberseeische bank, which was one of the most important banks in Spain-and the Banco Germanico de la America del Sur, S.A., formed by the Deutsche-Sudamerikanische Bank A.G. of Berlin. They were at least ten German insurance companies operating in Spain. In almost all sections of Spanish chemical and pharmaceutical industries there was some involvement by I.G. Farben. It controlled a number of Spanish firms directly through Unicolor S.A. I.G. Farben had a controlling interest in the Sociedad Electro- Quimica de Flix. The German firm of Lipperheide and Guzman S.A. had widespread holdings of mines, smelters, and transportation facilities. The company owned an interest in or were closely allied with ten mineral and chemical companies in Spain. The Germans were also deeply entrenched in the machinery and electrical equipment business in Spain. The official German trading company in Spain, Soc. Financiera Industrial Ltda (SOFINDUS), which was controlled by Rowark GmbH, had strong interests in Spanish agriculture.Germany's war effort depended significantly upon its imports of raw materials and goods from the neutral nations. Spain a major supplier to Germany of food and other goods. Spain also provided Germany with invaluable supplies of wolfram ore which Germany refined into tungsten and used in the steel-hardening process. As the second largest producer of this critical commodity (after Portugal), Spain sold Germany over 1,100 metric tons annually between 1941 and 1943, providing more than 30 percent of Germany's industrial requirements.Despite the sympathies of the Spanish Government with the Axis and its constant provocations, such as the seizure of Tangier in North Africa, and harboring spies and saboteurs, the United States and Great Britain followed a careful policy in the expectation that Spain would not become an avowed belligerent. And indeed for much of the war Spain remained pro-Axis, but non- belligerent.It should be noted that despite its often pro-Axis actions and activities, Spain also assisted refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. It allowed 20,000 to 30,000 refugees to cross the French border from the fall of France until the summer of 1942, and another 7,500 refugees entered Spain by the end of 1944. Spain also gave protection to 4,000 Jews of Spanish descent living in occupied Europe.By 1943 Spain began to gradually adopt a neutral policy, largely in response to Allied economic warfare, the growing strength of Allied armed forces especially in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the reversals experienced by Germany from 1942 onward. After the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, Spain softened its stance against the Allies.Nonetheless, Spain's strategic location and its supply routes to North Africa and South America gave Germany a conduit for important wartime materials, which Franco continued to supply. Private Spanish merchants were also Germany's principal source of vital commodities smuggled from Latin America and Africa, including industrial diamonds and platinum.After much pressure, and as Germany's defeat became more certain, in May 1944, Spain agreed to reduce drastically its wolfram exports to Germany, to hand over all interned Italian ships, to close the German consulate in Tangier, and to expel all German agents on Spanish territory. With respect to the latter, Spain continued to give Germany intelligence aid right up until the end of the war. Also, the Allies soon learned that senior members of Franco's Cabinet cooperated with Germany in smuggling more than 800 tons through July 1944 in violation of the May agreement. Spain's exports of wolfram to Germany finally ended with the closing of the Franco-Spanish border in August 1944. And it was not until April 1945 that Spain severed diplomatic relations with Germany.The Safehaven program encountered resistance in the United States Embassy in Madrid as Ambassador Carlton Hayes preferred a less aggressive attitude toward Franco and his government. Great Britain was less interested in the postwar political goals of the Safehaven program than in negotiating a trade agreement with Spain and ensuring the flow of Spanish goods to Great Britain in the postwar period.Spain had been asked in October 1944 to state its adherence to Bretton Woods Resolution VI. It did not do so until May 5, 1945. Also, in early May 1945, in response to an Allied request, Spain issued a decree freezing all assets with Axis interests and arranged for a a census of census of assets. On May 11, 1945, Spain exempted from blocking the assets of countries with whom it still maintained diplomatic relations The slow actions by the Spanish, and allowing the withdrawing funds from bank accounts and cloaking assets in anticipation of freezing, the Germans were able to evade the immediate effects of Spanish controls.The Allies estimated German external assets in Spain at the end of the war at about $95 million. American officials conservatively estimated in 1946 that between February 1942 and May 1945, Spain acquired about 123 tons of gold worth nearly $140 million: 11 tons directly from Germany and German-occupied territories, 74 tons from the German account at the Swiss National Bank, and about 38 tons directly from the Swiss National Bank, which the Allies believed included some looted gold. United States estimates indicated that 72 percent of the gold, worth approximately $100,000 million, acquired by Spain had been looted by Germany from the nations it occupied.Protracted postwar Allied negotiations with Spain over the restitution of monetary gold and the application of external German assets for reparations began in Madrid in September 1946, at which time the Allies suspected that Spain held about $30 million in gold looted by the Nazis and another $30-39 million in other German assets. In October 1946, Spain agreed to turn over to the Allies an estimated $25 million in official and semi-official German assets.In January 1948 Spain insisted on separating the negotiations over assets and gold, declaring that it would restitute any looted gold but would not sign an agreement that did not include a reciprocal claim for Spain's lost Civil War gold.Spain and the Allies agreed in May 1948, by which time the United States was seeking access to Spanish bases, to a complex formula for liquidating private German assets (then estimated at $20- 23 million) in which Spain would get about 24 percent and the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency about 76 percent of the proceeds. In November 1949, the Allies registered a protest over Spain's implementation of the accord, and a year later Spain threatened to suspend it. The debate continued without resolution until 1958. As a result, there was no payment for German assets.The two sides signed a separate agreement in May 1948 that Spain would return $114,329 out of about $30 million in looted Dutch gold that the Allies had identified at the Spanish Foreign Exchange Institute and be allowed to keep the remainder. This portion was the only gold that Spain had purchased directly from Banco Aleman Transatlantico, a German bank, and the Allies claimed that under the terms of Bretton Woods Resolution VI only the original purchaser of the gold from Germany was liable for its return. The Allies publicly acknowledge that Spain had not been aware at the time it acquired the gold that it had been looted. In addition to the $114,329 of looted gold, Spain turned over to the Allies $1.3 million in gold bars and coins it had seized from German State properties at the end of the war.The Allies could have insisted on more returns by Spain, backing up their demands with sanctions. But the Allies feared exacerbating tensions within Spain, that could bring about another civil war or allow Communists to gain a foothold in Spain. By 1948 the United States had concluded that attempts to pressure and isolate Spain were counterproductive and were detrimental to the Spanish economy. As a result, with the signing of the May 1948 agreements, the United States released over $64 million in assets frozen since the war. And by 1950 the Allies joined with the United States to normalize relations with Spain, and the future assets negotiations (continuing to 1957) were subordinated to efforts to integrate Spain into the Western economic and military framework and provide Spain with substantial military and economic assistance. (Note 90)Records of the U.S. Embassy, Madrid Spain