The Fiction of the Return of the 2nd Republic (1945-1947): Problems about the Transition's Economy (I)

This working paper examines the political economy of the Government of the Spanish Republic in Exile between 1945 and 1947, a period marked by the expectation -ultimately frustrated- of a democratic transition in Spain with United Nations support following the defeat of the Axis powers. The study contextualises the so-called "government of hope" led by José Giral and the intense diplomatic activity of Manuel de Irujo, Minister of Industry and Commerce, who devised a strategy to secure international recognition of the Republic and to prepare for a potential return. The best form of propaganda would be a sound understanding of economic issues. Drawing on previously unpublished documentation from the archives of the Fundación Universitaria Española (Madrid), the text analyses the Circular Letter of 11 December 1945 through which Irujo sought proposals for economic policy, as well as the responses submitted by exiled Republican experts. Together, these materials constitute one of the earliest non-partisan assessments of the economy of early Francoism. These sources make it possible to reconstruct debates on the creation of a Consejo de Economía Nacional, the nationalisation of strategic sectors, economic Iberianism, and, above all, the critical situation of food supplies in post-war Spain. As Ángel Almazán -whose testimony is included as an appendix-observed, "of all Spain's immense failures, none is more decisive than that of the food supply system." The analysis reveals both continuities and ruptures between Republican proposals and Francoist economic policy, as well as the decisive impact of the international context on the impossibility of a Republican restoration.