And quite an economical investment at that. The first fifteen months of the Plan’s application cost no more than one month of war. 1 While America offered aid, it called on the Europeans themselves, together, to organize a plan for the reconstruction of an open Europe capable of sustaining its own growth.
The American stimulus for Europe’s gradual and multilateral liberalization of foreign trade was crucial. Italy played a special role in transatlantic relations. Through the mid-1960s its trade with the United States was relatively more intense than that of the other large continental countries. America provided 14 per cent of Italy’s imports and took 10 per cent of its exports.