Back Mefo-Wechsel German Bonos Mefo Spanish Mefo-vekseli Finnish Bon MEFO French Mefo-váltó Hungarian Surat Mefo ID Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft Italian メフォ手形 Japanese 메포 어음 Korean Mefo Dutch
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A Mefo bill (sometimes written as MEFO bill), named after the company Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft (Metallurgical Research Corporation), was a promissory note used for a system of deferred payment to finance the Nazi German government's programme of rearmament, devised by the German Central Bank President, Hjalmar Schacht, in 1934. These Bills acted as a highly liquid form of debt for the Nazi government, allowing them to rearm under the Versailles Treaty.
Mefo bills followed the scheme for which the Öffa bills were the blueprint.
As Germany was rearming against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi government needed a form of money that one, did not leave a paper trail, and two, allowed them to spend extravagantly on military rearmament.[1] Billions of MEFO bills were issued throughout the regime's time in power, though the records are not precise.[2]
- ^ William L., Shirer (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 260.
- ^ Tooze, J. Adam (2007). The wages of destruction: the making and breaking of the Nazi economy (1st ed.). New York: Viking. pp. 54–64. ISBN 978-0-670-03826-8. OCLC 71266549.