Economic price of Civil War?

[durb]

Has there been any rough estimates of economic costs of Spanish Civil War?

Like:

- the total loss of destroyed and damaged property (houses, damage to infrastructure etc.) - My impression is that it was very big because the recovery ("posguerra" period) was quite long and one of the biggest reasons why Franco´s governement "failed" to join WW2 at the Axis side!

- how much Republicans and Nationalists actually paid for the foreign "help" they got and how much of this "help" was costfree for combatant parties of Spanish Civil War? - My impression is that in pure gold and hard currency Republicans paid more for Soviet equipment and "volunteers" than Nationalist for Italian/German equipment and "volunteers" - any rough estimates how much Republicans paid in gold and dollars for military "help" to Soviet Union and how much Nationalists did the same to Italy/Germany?

[Orwell1984]

There is a 2010 paper called War and Economics: Spanish Civil War Finances Revisited by three Spanish academics that deals with some of the issue you detail above as well as discussing other works of a similar bent.
Available for download here: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22833/1/WP-CivilWar.pdf

There is also a new book due out in April by Pierpaolo Barbieri: Hitler's Shadow Empire: Nazi Economics and the Spanish Civil War that I'm sure will help with the Nationalist side.

http://www.amazon.ca/Hitlers-Shadow-Emp ... +civil+war

[Ironmachine]

- the total loss of destroyed and damaged property (houses, damage to infrastructure etc.) - My impression is that it was very big because the recovery ("posguerra" period) was quite long

The lenght of the recovery period is not a good indicator of the damage inflicted during the war. Surely Germany suffered much more during World War II but it recovered earlier because the post-war conditions were very different to those of Spain. Having said that, the damage inflicted during the war was certainly important, especially considering the development level of pre-war Spain.

any rough estimates how much Republicans paid in gold and dollars for military "help" to Soviet Union and how much Nationalists did the same to Italy/Germany?

Soviet military "help" can be estimated in about 510 million dollars, Italian military "help" in about 310 million dollars and German military "help" in about 180 million dollars. But you are going to find wide divergences in the numbers in different works, especially if the author is "politically motivated".

[durb]

Is in the number of 510 million USD (by the 1939 value?) of Republican/Soviet military deals included also the so-called "Moscow gold" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_gold?

About the price of Italian/German "help" - is the combined sum of approx. 490 million USD just a rough value of all material deliveries and other costs of Germans/Italians or the amount of monetary compensation which Nationalists paid to Italians and Germans?

About the Italian "help" it has been stated that it actually was in relative terms cheaper business for Nationalists than weapons and experts given by Germans (and by Soviets to Republicans). In some works about Mussolini era in Italy the "Spanish affair" is mentioned as one in which Nationalists received most of Italian aircraft, guns and war material as "donated" by Mussolini or that Franco "never paid the debt" to Italy (but did so with Germany paying with both money and raw material deliveries).

It has been also stated that Italy´s own army suffered to some extent from it that so much material was sent to Spain, that some of their own vital deposits were emptied and they were thus less able to arm their own reserve forces with enough basic weaponry by 1939/1940. Italy would have needed those deposits herself, even all the "outdated" stuff...

So Soviet Union made some business profit of Spanish Civil War in economic terms, Germany more or less covered its costs and Italy just donated plenty of material?

There were also some minor partners to be considered. For example French "help" to Republicans was to my knowledge not at all costfree business for the latter - despite any initial sympathies that French governement may have felt for Republicans, the latter had to pay with hard currency for all French aircraft and other French weaponry they got. Taking in account the French internal politics, the governement of Leon Blum could not just donate war material to Republicans - so it had to be profitable business for the French. Perhaps Mexican governement was the only one which actually sent some material help to Republicans without full demands of economic compensation.

[Ironmachine]

Oops, I made a mistake with the Soviet help.
The 515 million dollars was not the amount of the Soviet help, but the value of the Spanish gold sent to Moscow. Not all of it was used to buy Soviet weapons.
Armament bough in the Soviet Unión amounted on paper to about 170 million dollars, plus the last big shipment of December 1938 which was made on credit (IIRC, it amounted to 55 million dollars) because theoretically all the gold has been already spent. Another 30 million dollars were charged by the Soviets for other concepts (Soviet staff in Spain, training for Spanish pilots in the Soviet Union, etc.). It should be noted, however, that it is usually considered that the Soviet Union highly overcharged Republican Spain in all the categories.
About 100 million dollars were used to buy weaponry in countries other than the Soviet Union. The rest of the gold (about 215 million dollars) was used to buy other supplies (oil, food, clothes, ...) in the Soviet Unión and other countries, to pay the shipment of goods, commissions, bribes, etc.

[Ironmachine]

In some works about Mussolini era in Italy the "Spanish affair" is mentioned as one in which Nationalists received most of Italian aircraft, guns and war material as "donated" by Mussolini or that Franco "never paid the debt" to Italy (but did so with Germany paying with both money and raw material deliveries).

What a nonsense! Italian help was never a "donation", it was paid by Spain. However, it is true that on paper it was cheaper than the German help as the Italians accepted a reduction of the amount for political reasons. An agreement was reached between Italy and Spain in May 1940 to pay 5.000 million lire as war debt (when the Spanish authorities previously estimated the debt at 8.300 million lire) in 25 annual payments beginning in January 1943, with an initial interest of 0.25% (that reached 4% in the final years). The payments concluded in June 1967.
However, it should be noted that the debt with Italy, even if reduced by the Italians, was completely paid by Spain, while the payment of the war debt with Germany was cancelled by Spain in 1945 when there was still a significant percentage of the debt (about 35% IIRC) unpaid.

[durb]

Thanks for info. Most interesting.

[haxtur]

The spanish debt with Germany also was paid totally, but not to the nazi government. This debt was paid in 1948 to the Allied Control Commission, the legal heir of the government of Third Reich, I read this information in a book of Manuel Ros Agudo, but I don't remember which. Maybe my memory is not good and I read this in the book of Catalán; La economía española y la Segunda Guerra Mundial. In any case I am sure about this information. I'll try look for the exact book.

[Ironmachine]

The spanish debt with Germany also was paid totally, but not to the nazi government. This debt was paid in 1948 to the Allied Control Commission, the legal heir of the government of Third Reich,

I may be wrong, but I think what you are talking about was not the Spanish war debt with Germany. The agreement that Spain reached in 1948 with the Allies was not to pay the SCW debt, but to liquidate official and semi-official German assets in Spain for war reparations to the Allies and to turn over gold looted by Germany during the war that was in Spain. See for example:

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. The Allied-Spanish negotiations were more intermittent and lengthier than the Allied-Swiss and Allied-Swedish negotiations which had preceded them. 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. The two sides agreed in May 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. None of the proceeds was slated for the $25 million fund for non-repatriable victims of Nazism, as envisioned in the January 1946 Allied Reparations Agreement, because the Allied negotiators believed the fund would be fully subscribed by the amounts obtained from Switzerland, Sweden, and Portugal.
The two sides signed a separate agreement in May 1948 that Spain would return $114,329 (101.6 kilograms) 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 the Banco Aleman Transatlantico, a German institution, 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 acknowledged that Spain had not been aware at the time it acquired the gold that it had been looted. In addition to the 101.6 kilograms 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.

From https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/js ... sets1.html

On May 10, 1948, the Allies and Spain reached an "Accord¼for the Expropriation of German
Enemy Property in Spain and the Liquidation of Balances and Payments Between Spain and Germany."
The Allies were to receive the proceeds from the liquidation of all official and quasi-official assets,
estimated at that time to be worth 225-250 million pesetas (about $20-23 million). As for private assets
either in Spain on May 5, 1945, or "falling due" by April 30, 1948, the parties agreed to a percentage
distribution. Spain would receive 20 percent of the first 100 million pesetas (about $9 million) realized,
22½ percent of the next 100 million, 25 percent of the next, 27½ percent of the next, and 30 percent of any
amount exceeding 400 million (about $36 million). Based on this formula, the 18 members of the Inter-
Allied Reparations Agency (IARA) would receive about 76 percent of the first $36 million realized. In
addition, in a note exchanged at the signing of the accord, the United States pledged to release over $64
million in Spanish assets that had been frozen in the United States since the War.87
At the time of the agreement, the Allies projected about 400 million pesetas (about $36 million)
from private assets. Initially the proceeds were to be deposited in the Spanish Foreign Exchange Institute
and could not "be transferred abroad or used for investment in Spain without the special agreement of the
Spanish Government." In an attached "Financial Protocol" to the accord, Spain indicated that it would
authorize "transfers, cessions or investments" of these funds "within the limits and capabilities" of its
economy."88 None of the proceeds, however, was slated for the $25 million fund for non-repatriable
victims of the Nazis established by the January 1946 Paris Reparations Agreement, largely because the
Allies believed they would meet this amount in their agreements on German assets with the Swiss,
Swedish, and Portuguese. Furthermore, they did not believe that pesetas would prove much value to the
fund.89
The accord tasked Spain with identifying and liquidating these assets, but gave the Allies, as
"representatives of the Government of Germany," the right to "intervene" at any point in the process. The
value of these properties was to be determined by a "fair appraisal," and any disputes between the two sides
were to be mediated by a "disinterested person chosen by both." Once Spain fulfilled the accord's terms, it
would be freed from "all classes of claims and trade or payments balances between Spain and Germany."
The Allies, "in the name of the Government of Germany," guaranteed that whatever German Government
succeeded the Allied Control Council "shall confirm" for Germany the accord's provisions.90
[...]
The Allies also reached an agreement with Spain on looted gold through an exchange of notes on
April 30 and May 3, 1948. Spain agreed to turn over 101.6 kilograms of fine gold ($114,329) identified as
looted from the Netherlands and any other looted gold identified before April 30, 1949. In return, the
Allies’ note and all public pronouncements acknowledged that Spain "had not been aware [at] acquisition or
subsequently" that the gold had been looted.91 Spain delivered the gold to the Tripartite Gold
Commission’s gold pool account at the Bank of England in February 1949.92 Spain’s action freed it from all
restrictions on trading gold under the February 1944 Gold Declaration. The United States hoped that Spain
would use its gold reserves as collateral for private credits from U.S. banks, furthering the new U.S. policy
of normalizing Spain’s economic relations and promoting Spanish economic development.93

From http://1997-2001.state.gov/www/regions/ ... _spain.pdf

As can be seen, this has nothing to do with the Civil War debt, which AFAIK was never completely paid.

[Ironmachine]

Yes, definitely the German war debt was never completely paid by Spain (though a large amount of it was indeed paid). See:

Por lo que respecta a la deuda con Alemania, la necesidad de asegurarse los suministros alemanes y la falta de organización de la administración en el bando rebelde llevaron a los dirigentes franquistas a dejar en manos alemanas la contabilización de la ayuda y suministros recibidos, al tiempo que se firmaba un acuerdo en el que se reconocía la existencia de la deuda y se regulaba la forma de pago, aunque se dejaba sin fijar el monto total de las obligaciones contraídas por España (50). La determinación de la cuantía de la deuda se convertiría en un permanente escollo en las relaciones hispano- alemanas. En 1940, las autoridades nazis cifraron en 371,5 millones de marcos (unos 147 millones de dólares) el monto pendiente de la deuda contraída por el bando franquista con el Estado alemán (51). Las autoridades españolas, sin embargo, solo aceptaron esta cantidad como punto de partida para las conversaciones y adoptaron una estrategia de dilación de las negociaciones en la esperanza de que una eventual victoria del Eje trajese consigo la condonación total o parcial de la deuda. Hay que recordar, no obstante, que el gobierno español realizó durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial diversos pagos en especie y efectivo. Al finalizar la Segunda Guerra Mundial, no se había alcanzado acuerdo alguno sobre el monto total y el modelo de amortización de la deuda de guerra española, y tampoco se había determinado oficialmente el volumen total de los pagos realizados por parte española. Sin embargo, en una negociación secreta realizada durante 1944 se llegaron a fijar unas cantidades aceptables para ambos países, e incluso el modo de pago de la deuda restante (52). Como resultado de esa negociación, España admitió la cifra de 371,8 millones de RM como deuda de guerra, de los que confirmaba haber satisfecho 138,6 millones (55 millones de dólares) por diversos conceptos. Por otro lado, Alemania aceptó aplicar una rebaja sobre los 232 millones restantes, exigiendo tan solo el pago de 170 millones de RM (unos 67 millones de dólares), lo que suponía una reducción de un 16% del total. Si se tenía en cuenta el crédito comercial concedido en el acuerdo clearing vigente, de 70 millones de RM en favor de Alemania, la deuda final quedaba en unos 100 millones, que debían ser satisfechos, según se disponía en el documento final de las negociaciones, en pesetas y en plazos fijos entre el 15 de abril y el 15 de noviembre, fecha en que la deuda quedaría totalmente saldada. Aunque las negociaciones nunca fueron culminadas por un acuerdo, lo que García Pérez interpreta como una decisión política por parte del gobierno español, las cifras acordadas pueden ser utilizadas como aproximación a lo efectivamente pagado. Sin embargo, más allá de su cuantía total, la deuda con Alemania fue gravosa porque en su mayor parte fue saldada al contado y de forma inmediata, incluso antes de haberse fijado el monto final de la obligación contraída, lo que supuso una carga adicional para un país recién salido de una guerra. El contraste con la disposición italiana a diferir los pagos 25 años en unas condiciones muy favorables para España es revelador en este aspecto. La cuestión de la deuda alemana se alargó hasta 1948, año en que un acuerdo firmado entre España y el Consejo de Control Aliado para Alemania, ratificado por la República Federal Alemana en 1958, puso fin a la cuestión, aceptándose la renuncia por ambas parte a toda clase de reclamación financiera (53).

http://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Seccione ... roja43.pdf

[Ironmachine]

So in summary (in case the Spanish source in my last post can not be translated):
Italy: Italy condoned nealy 40% of its war debt, and the rest was completely paid in 25 annual payments from 1943 to 1967.
Germany: Spain made payments from 1939 to 1944 (not only in cash but also in products) even if the total amount of the war debt had not been agreed upon. In 1944 an agreement was reached determining the total amount of the debt, of which 37.3% was considered already paid. Of the remaining debt (and not of the total debt as of 1939), Germany was ready to condone about 28% (that would be about 17% of the original, complete debt), another 30% was covered by a commercial credit granted by Spain to Germany, and the rest was to be paid in a number of installments that same year. Spain never signed the agreement, and no more payments were made. Finally in 1948 Spain and Allied Control Commission signed an agreement (ratified by the German Federal Republic in 1958) accepting the waiver by both parties to all kinds of financial claims.

[durb]

Thanks for very interesting details of economic history of Civil War. It is perhaps a bit difficult to determine how much Spain (both Repbulican + Nationalist) part paid in total for all the foreign "help" - but I guess we are talking about the total sum of less of 1 billion USD (of 1939 value) as Germans and Italians did not actually cover their costs of the involvement with Spanish Civil War as much as Soviet Union. So in the end Nationalists received more foreign help with much less money than Republicans.

If I have understood correctly the "Moscow gold" or the gold reserves of Spanish Republic (515 USD million) went almost all to cover up the expenses of Republican government regarding in one way or other the foreign "help" and the Italian/German "help" to Nationalist governement was estimated roughly 490 USD million (?) but not all of it was paid by Franco´s government due to reasons mentioned above. But anyway it was not a "free lunch" neither for Republicans and for Nationalists, although cheaper for the latter (taking in account the discounts and arrangements with the debt to Italy and that the debt to Germany was by considerable part not paid).

Of course there were also other important costs to be considered - funds were needed for the reconstruction of basic infrastructure, housing etc. in Spain. That cost is perhaps impossible to find out, but perhaps some rough guesses have been made and then we perhaps come up to the total sum of billion-scale both in terms of USD (of 1939 value) and in current Euro value?

When it comes to the lives lost on both sides, I guess that we can not put any monetary value on that.

[haxtur]

Ironmachine, you are right.
The book about the information I quote from memory, bad memory, is GARCÍA PÉREZ- Franquismo y Tercer Reich-Las relaciones económicas hispano-alemanas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial; 1994.
This is a dissertation from 1992.
It's based in spanish and german documentation from records. In april 1944 Spain and Germany agree in a final payment of the spanish debt from civil war of 100 millions of Reich Marks. This payment was not paid, minister of Exteriores Jordana managed an agreement in the Consejo de Ministros about not apply this agreement. In 1948 the agreement with The Allied Control Council (not Commission like I wrote) was, apart the matter of gold, commercial debt and others, to settle the spanish civil war debt. This agreement was recognized by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1958 in a Treaty with the spanish government.
About this matter read: Parte VI.2 Pagos contra la deuda de guerra pages 422-438. Parte VII.2 Deuda de guerra, pages 502-528 (Interesting Parte 4.1 y 2 sobre Programa Bär pag. 393-403)
Ya en español, y me disculpo por no usar el idioma del foro, tenías razón, la deuda no fue totalmente pagada y se compensó con otras deudas alemanas y además García Pérez dice que el gobierno de Franco salió beneficiado del acuerdo con el Consejo de Control Aliado en la devolución de bienes alemanes. Por cierto, la documentación sobre la deuda de guerra está desaparecida en buena parte, quedan sólo las entradas de los documentos en el catálogo, pero éstos los hicieron desaparecer, así que la verdad sobre el asunto es la que muestran los documentos que quedan y no voy a basar una discusión histórica en presunciones sospechas y prejuicios políticos.
Te ruego traduzcas lo anterior, ya que mi inglés, como puedes ver, es deficiente.
Saludos y muchas gracias Ironmachine.

[Ironmachine]

haxtur asks me in his post to translate what he wrote in Spanish as he thinks his English is not good enough. So in case anyone is interested, here is the translation of that part of his post:
Now in Spanish, and I apologize for not using the language of the forum, you were right, the debt was not fully paid and was compensated with other German debt and also García Pérez says Franco's government was benefited in the agreement with the Allied Control Council for the return of German assets. By the way, the documentation on the war debt is largely missing, there are only the documents' references in the catalog, but the documents were made to disappear, so the truth of the matter is what is shown in the remaining documents and I'm not going to build a historical discussion on suspicions, assumptions and political prejudices.
I ask you to translate this, because my English, as you can see, is poor.
Greetings and thank you very much Ironmachine.

[haxtur]

Thank you very much Ironmachine.