c
THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL
[JUNE
After she entered the war, the net short-term position of theUnited States deteriorated substantially; so much so that byOctober 1945 she had dissipated by far the greater part of her largegains from ourselves and others in 1939, 1940 and 1941 before sheentered the war, and was only very slightly stronger, after de-ducting her increased foreign liability from her increased goldreserve, than at the end of 1938, an increase of $5,524 million ingold holdings and of about $200 million in currency holdingsabroad being offset by an increase of $5,175 million in foreignliabilities, as is shown in Tables III and IV.
Gold held under ear-mark for foreign account at December 31,1945, represented $3,994 million.
The fact that the U.S. Administration blocked the resourcesof a number of foreign countries during the war, and that theseassets remained blocked throughout the war-period, has madeavailable fairly accurate statistics of the very large dollar hold-ings of the countries in question, which stood at the end of thewar as follows :—
Table VI
Distribution of Blocked Property by Nationality of Owner{as of June 14, 1941)
Netherlands, including Netherlands (East) Indies . . . $1,800,000,000
Switzerland ,........ 1,500,000,000
France and Monaco ........ 1,400,000,000
Belgium .......... 400,000,000
China.......... 300,000,000
All others.......... 750,000,000
Blocked nationals resident in the United States (other than
business enterprises owned abroad) ..... 500,000,000
Holdings of American citizens in blocked enterprises . . 750,000,000
Total . .......$8,500,000,000
Distribution of Blocked Property by Type of Property(as of June 14, 1941)
Short-term funds, including ear-marked gold .... $4,000,000,000
Securities.......... 2,000,000,000
Direct investments and miscellaneous ..... 2,000,000,000
Holdings of blocked nationals resident in United States . . 500,000,000
Total........ $8,500,000,000