The foreign exchanges have fluctuated more wildly than ever during
the past week. On Wednesday the German mark was quoted at one moment at 490 to the pound sterling, or less than a halfpenny. The Austrian krone, nominally worth about ten- pence, was quoted at 6,000 to the pound, or about a twenty-fifth of a penny. The Polish mark, which should be the equivalent of a German mark, was worth on the same day less than a hun- dredth of a penny. The whole monetary system of Central and Eastern Europe is out of gear. Until it is set working again in a more or less normal manner, our export trade cannot possibly recover. We can neither sell to nor buy from countries in which money values move up and down in such an incalculable fashion. The confusion in the exchanges seems, unfortunately, to have thwarted the Austrian Finance Minister's attempt to obtain foreign credits, so as to arrest the rapid fall of the krone. Some people think that Germany is deliberately depressing the value of the mark in order to benefit her exporters. But with the mark at a halfpenny she will soon be unable to buy any raw materials abroad, and her textile industries must then stop.
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