Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan rebuilt Western Europe's factories, ports, and transport, restoring the trading partners that postwar US exports and imports depended on. Aid paid for food, fuel, machinery, and raw materials, and participating governments were pressed to cooperate and lower trade barriers among themselves, an early step toward European economic integration. By 1952, when funding ended, every participant's economy had surpassed prewar levels. The program also funded technical assistance that brought US productivity methods to European industry. Today's dense transatlantic trade, and the European market many US brands sell into, rests partly on that recovery.

• Country of OriginCountry where goods were made
• Landed CostTotal cost to get a product ready to sell

• Bretton Woods Conference1944 · 44 nations create the IMF and World Bank
• Zollverein1834 · German states drop tariffs among themselves
• The Wealth of Nations1776 · Adam Smith argues for division of labor and free trade

• Lend-Lease Act1941 · 1941 law supplying Allied nations in World War II
• Treaty of Rome1957, in force 1958 · 1957 treaty founding the EEC and its customs union

1. Marshall Plan (1948) archives.gov
2. Marshall Plan britannica.com
3. Marshall Plan en.wikipedia.org