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Military government weekly information bulletin
No. 42 (May 1946)
General, pp. 11-12
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Page 11
generat( BARTER EXCHANGES AID BERMAN CONSUMER A barter syndicate of 20 stores opera- ted by responsible German merchants is now in operation in Stuttgart. Used cloth- ing, household ;articles and other scarce items may be acquired by German civil- ians through the syndicate, according to a study made by the Price Control and Rationing Section of OMG, Wuerttem- berg-Baden. Each of the cooperating stores in the syndicate specializes in a separate cate- gory of merchandise facilitating the bar- ter of merchandise and at the same time increasing the business of the Stutt- gart merchants. Transactions have reach- ed a value of RM 150,000 per month. A person desiring to exchange an elec- tric iron for a more needed commodity takes the iron to the electric appliance store, where it is appraised on the basis 'of pre-war prices, with deductions for depreciation The seller receives the cash value of the merchandise and a barter certificate authorizing him to purchase any article available in the cooperating stores up to thirty percent above the value of the item he has sold. The thirty percent allowance covers the overhead of the syndicate and the profit to the dealer. Examples, of the controlled prices pre- vailing in the exchange include a pair of used shoes for seven and a half marks, a twenty four piece set of silverware for fifty marks and a pocket knife for three and a half marks. An extensive publicity campaign won public confidence in this barter system to the extent that in a recent public opinion poll, 99 percent of those questioned knew of the existence of the barter pxchange, 93 percent thought it a useful institution, 63 percent had patronized it at least once, and 94 piereent said that they preferred thte system to any other form of barter. Faced with a scarcity iof consumer goods, other cities throughout the US Zone have been following the example of Stuttgart. In Essilingen, a city iof 50,000 population, there have been more than 50,000 syndicate transactions. MG economists have given their full support to the barter exchanges, pointing 'out that the syndicates, have eased an over-strained rationing system during the transition period from war to a peace- time ieconomy. In addition the exchanges have ieffected a more widespread dis- tribution of reserves of consumer goods and controlled a certain amount of mer- chandise which would otherwise be bart- tered 'or sold on the black market, but- tressing the ~legall price level. Reported Arrests Denied Recent newspapers reports that eighty ex-Wehrmacht officers have been arrest- ed in Landkreis Miesbach, 40 miles south- west 'of Munich, for subversive activity have been branded as untrue by MG intelligence 'officials. Various versions of this news account appearing in both the German and Allied press also related finding of a list of 400 ,names of German anti-Fascists, all slated for assassinations. Bavarian Minister Pres- ident Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner reportedly headed this list. MG's investigations re- vealed no trace of such a list. Meanwhile MG's Public Safety Branch reported a large scale raid in southern Bavarigan mountains, conducted by Amer- ican and German p!olice authorities dur- ing April, had resulted in tonly 35 per- sions being held on suspicion of "Edel- weiss activities." Incomplete statistics re- 11
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