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“I was thinking just the other day, Herr Cranz, that what I have become in the present circumstances is a ‘purchase facilitator.’ ”
“Which means?”
“In the present circumstances, Germany has very little to offer for sale to Argentina. Our industry is devoted entirely, as I’m sure you are aware, to production to bring us to the final victory as soon as possible. At the same time, Germany’s need for foodstuffs, wool, and leather is so great that, if we were able, we would take their entire production.”
“Why aren’t we able?”
“The Americans, primarily, and, to a lesser degree, the English.”
“I don’t think I fully understand.”
“It is a rather complicated problem, Herr Cranz.”
Cranz made an impatient gesture.
“First of all, it is a question of shipping, Herr Cranz. Our Kriegsmarine is unfortunately not able to protect our shipping. Which means we have to ship in neutral bottoms. Spanish, French, and Portuguese, primarily. Sometimes Swedish. And recently, we have had to make sure that merchandise owned by Germany is not aboard a, say, French ship.”
“Why?”
“Because the Americans announced they were going to stop and inspect neutral vessels on the high seas to make sure they were not carrying contraband, by which they meant anything owned by Germans.”
“And they’re doing that?”
“The threat was enough to make the Swedes and the French, et cetera, refuse to take aboard German-owned merchandise. It has been necessary for us to arrange for Spanish or Portuguese, et cetera, firms to purchase, for example, frozen beef, which is then shipped to Spain or Portugal on neutral bottoms. Once ashore in Spain, it can then legally be sold to Germany and sent by rail.
“So one of the things I do, Herr Cranz, is guarantee the sight drafts of, say, the Spanish Beef Importing Company of Madrid—”
“What’s a ‘sight draft’?”
“Something like a check. Payable ‘on sight.’ The Argentine beef producers want their money before they will allow their beef to be loaded aboard ship. So I see to that. Berlin advises me how much the Spanish Beef Importing Company—which we control, of course—is allowed to bid for the beef, and then I—the Hamburg-Argentine Bank—guarantees their sight draft for payment.”
“Berlin advises you? What’s that all about?”
“Because the Americans also bid for the beef, driving the price as high as they can to inconvenience us. It’s sort of a game we play.”
“A game? What sort of a game?”
“At the weekly sale, the American beef packers here, Swift and Armour, enter a bid for so many tons of beef. So does the Spanish Beef Importing Company. Say the Americans enter a bid of fifty dollars per hundredweight. We—the Spaniards—counter with a bid of fifty-five dollars. They raise their bid to sixty dollars, we raise ours to sixty-five, et cetera.”
“The bidding is in American dollars?” Cranz asked incredulously.
Frogger nodded.
“Where do we get American dollars?”
“In Switzerland, primarily. Some in Sweden. Even some in France. We have to pay a premium for them, of course.”
“Of course,” Cranz said bitterly.
“As I was saying, the bidding goes back and forth until one side stops. Recently, frozen beef has been closing at about one hundred five dollars a hundredweight. ”
“Why does one side stop bidding?”
“We stop when it reaches the maximum Berlin has stated.”
“And the Americans?”
“Whenever they want us to have the beef at an outrageous price. They don’t really want the beef.”
