English Translation

9 a very conservative finance minister realized the capital taxation - a reform that was considered too daring elsewhere. Czechoslovakia has inherited more than two-thirds of the industry of the former Danube monarchy with barely a quarter of the population, it was realized at a time when all the Steats, large or small, pursued a selfish policy in the matter of customs, and at a moment when their neighbours, exhausted by the war, were unable to absorb their exports. It has opened up new markets and remained a promising bond until the great world crisis of the year l93o. The volume of exports and imports amounted to more than 40 billion kroner a year, their exports were considerably higher than their imports; Czechoslovakia played an important role in international economic bodies; Czechoslovakia suffered very strongly from the crisis - at the worst moment of the depression its business volume decreased by 70 g - but even this crisis period could not in any way be its internal stability. Since 1934 the situation began to improve and in the year l938 Czechoslovakia completely recovered.At that time the number of unemployed did not exceed 10,000 and the Czechoslovak kiss trade balance was predominantly active.The social level of the population, which had to be considerably reduced during the terrible years of crisis, rose again.It was, we repeat, a prosperous country, against which Germany fell one day after Minchen and whose frosperitat it ended with its invasion on 15 March 1939.It had been a country where the greatest economy was sought.