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"Spain - Eximbank's Billion Dollar Client": The Role of the US Financing the Spanish Nuclear Program

Author

Listed:
  • Mª del Mar Rubio-Varas

    (Universidad Pública de Navarra)

  • Joseba De la Torre

    (Universidad Pública de Navarra)

Abstract

In 1972, Henry Kearns, President and Chairman, Export-Import Bank of the United States (Eximbank) visited the Official Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Madrid. The title of his speech “Spain—Eximbank’s Billion Dollar Client” gave notice of the important role that the public American bank had for financing the Spanish purchases of capital equipment: aircrafts, steel mills, satellite grown stations, power plants, etc. The heavy concentration on new power facilities at the time made Spain the fastest growing nuclear power developer in Europe, and the largest nuclear power buyer from the US with Eximbank’s support head-to-head with Japan. No other nation approached these two in that respect. Investigating archival materials from the Eximbank and the National Archives and Record Administration of the United States (NARA), we explore the financial facilities the US provided to the Spanish nuclear program, the size of the authorised credits and its evolution over time. It became apparent that the role of the US in pumping public money for exporting nuclear facilities to the world explain a great deal of the US quasi-monopoly of global nuclear market before the 1980s, and in particular for turning Spain into an early adopter and champion adopter of nuclear technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Mª del Mar Rubio-Varas & Joseba De la Torre, 2016. ""Spain - Eximbank's Billion Dollar Client": The Role of the US Financing the Spanish Nuclear Program," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1603, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1603
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker,William H. & McClenahan, Jr,William M., 2003. "The Market, the State, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, 1934–2000," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521811439.
    2. Joseba De la Torre & Mar Rubio, 2014. "El Estado y el desarrollo de la energía nuclear en España, c. 1950-1985," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1403, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nuclear energy; Eximbank; export subsidies.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
    • N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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