phylo_roadking wrote:I'm not sure what opportunities there remained to sell it on the world market by then.
Bronsky, I've just noticed your old comment on this. This answer is, of course - it was Nazi Germany's link to the outside world markets VIA Switzerland that allowed her to sell on the world market. It wasn't "Germany" that was selling, it was "Switzerland". Similar to buying in war materiel via Switzerland as part of Operation Bernhard.
I'm afraid you missed my question. My question wasn't *how* the Germans managed to sell gold on the world market, but how they could still do it in mid-1943.
By then, Switzerland didn't have all that much contact with the greater world. It was entirely surrounded with German-controlled territory, and export shipping from Marseilles (the normal trade route) was no longer an option until the Allies had restored a link a year later.
As part of the blockade policy, Swiss exports and imports were carefully monitored as were Spanish and Portuguese trade, so there seems to be no obvious way for the Germans to *buy* anything on the world market by that time.
Obviously, the gold would still be useful, either as bounty to be kept for later, or to pay off some of the huge trade deficits that Germany ran with every other of its (European) trade partners, e.g. making a nice down payment from time to time might encourage the Spaniards or Swedes to extend credit for a while longer.