Thomas1195
Banned
1914: germany was world second largest exporter, and their exports were mainly high tech engineering stuff, while british exports were low tech things like textile and garmentsQuite. You could also look at how many were made. So the British in their wattle and daub cottages spoon whittling in steam powered factories travelled to work in cars and buses. Leading to a plethora of mechanics able to fix internal combustion engines and drivers and suchlike while the germans travelled on trams powered by mains electricity.
Shame they could's run tramlines for the tanks and planes when war came.
Same for radios, in the Britain and France they are a something teenagers build for fun. In germany there is a massive state effort to make radios avialable so people can listen to propaganda speeches, so fixed tuned to one station and comparatively rare.
The whole synthetic fuel and rubber issue is a case study in stupidity and attempted autarchy. Yes you can make it at around the twice the price of importing it. But to import it requires global trading and exports people want and there are only so many guns you can sell. From 1910 - 1940 with a brief interruption in the 20's Germany did not have a viable export economy because it was gearing up a military.