The International Economic Relations of Small Countries in the 1930s. Belgium and The Netherlands

For countries like Belgium or the Netherlands it was impossible to formulate a foreign policy that guaranteed freedom and independence during the interwar period. It was also impossible to realise an independent monetary or trade policy. The economic problem of such highly developed, small countries was that their economies were dependent of trade with number of countries, which during these years became members, sometimes the centre of separated economic blocks. Participating in one of these blocks would not only be disastrous for the relations with vital partners outside it, but also would threaten the political independence.