Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "486499377",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Spain, Situation Report 11",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499377"
}

{
    "id": "486499377",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499377",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Spain, Situation Report 11",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499377",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875502/875502-01-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875502/875502-01-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875502/875502-01-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 101,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499377",
    "naId": 486499377,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 15,
            "logicalDate": "1948-11-15",
            "month": 11,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 45,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875502/875502-01-045.tif",
    "mediaId": "60bd250a9dfe62b2",
    "ocrText": "SECRET\nThe manufacture of electrical equipment, which expanded rapidly in the\nfirst four or five years after the Civil War, levelled off in 1946. In the small motor\nindustry the lack of good quality magnetic plates has restricted output.\n6. TRANSPORTATION\nThe privately owned railway network has been assembled into a national system\nunder Government control, which is known as RENFE (Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles\nde España). The railway system-roadbed, track, equipment, and rolling stock-is\nin a state of ill repair. Never fully adequate to serve the national requirements, the\nrailway system has deteriorated progressively since the Civil War and is now critically\ndeficient. Highways also have deteriorated. Highway transport equipment is in much\nthe same condition as the railways. The country produces no passenger cars and few\ntrucks; it has been able to import few replacements, and the shortage of repair parts\nis acute. The total motor vehicle park in Spain is very small: there are less than\n65,000 passenger cars, 40,000 trucks, and 6,500 busses. A large part of the passenger\ncars and trucks and some busses belong to the Army and the various Government\nagencies.\nThe Spanish merchant marine tonnage of about 1.1 million tons falls far\nshort of shipping requirements, which are normally 1.5 to 2 million tons. Seventy-\none percent of the fleet is more than 20 years old. Present production capacity is\nonly sufficient to maintain the existing tonnage.\n7. FINANCE.\na.\nBanking and Currency.\nThe Spanish monetary unit is the peseta. With official buying and selling\nrates for foreign exchange fixed respectively at 10.95 and 11.22 pesetas per United States\ndollar, the official value of the peseta is roughly 9 cents. In August 1946, however, a\npreferential rate of exchange was established, nominally for tourist purposes but in\npractice extended to purchases of export goods, emigrant remittances and other cate-\ngories, with buying and selling rates fixed at 16.40 and 16.81 pesetas per United States\ndollar, thereby reducing the value of the peseta to about 6 cents.\nThe volume of currency in circulation expanded during the 1940's from 13.5\nbillion pesetas in 1941 to a peak of 26 billion in December 1947. This two-fold increase\nof currency in circulation compares with a rise of roughly 120 percent in wholesale\nprices during the same period. In view of world-wide increases in prices during these\nyears and the increased needs for currency as a consequence, the expansion in Spanish\ncurrency was not unduly large.\nOfficial gold holdings are relatively small, equivalent to 111 million United\nStates dollars. Prior to the Spanish Civil War, gold holdings were considerably larger;\non 30 April 1938 they amounted to 525 million dollars. During the Civil War the\ngold holdings were practically wiped out; the Minister of Finance, Juan Negrín, in\n1938 shipped almost 500 million dollars worth of gold to the USSR on \"deposit\" for\nSECRET\n32"
}