The situation in different countries which have maintained commercial relations with Spain since the 18th July, 1936, and their method of dealing with goods exported by the legitimate Government of the Spanish Republic (extract)

              Private and Confidential
International Federation of Trade Unions
ANGLO-SPANISH CLEARING AGREEMENT
Extract of the Section relating to Great Britain included in a Memorandum dealing with the situation in different countries which have maintained commercial relations with Spain since the 18th July, 1936, and their method of dealing with goods exported by the legitimate Government of the Spanish Republic.
GREAT BRITAIN
Since the 19th December, 1936, this country has paid in free currency for all Spanish goods exported to the United Kingdom.
The Anglo-Spanish Agreement was suspended by the British Government because it wanted to be free to trade with both Spanish zones, and continuation of the Anglo-Spanish Agreement would have meant that payment for Spanish goods - irrespective of the part of the country from which they came - would have been made to the Bank of England to be remitted to the exporters or Spanish Creditors through the Foreign Bank of Spain (Banque Exterieure de l'Espagne).     Seeing that this official undertaking does not exist in the rebel zone, the exporters in rebel territory would not have been able to obtain the payment for their goods.
From July 1936 to 19th December, 1936, the date on which the clearing agreement was suspended, Spanish exports yielded a total of £1,700,000, immobilised in the ASCO, until, according to the Foreign Office, the Spanish situation should allow of the machinery of payments being set in motion again, or of the equivalent in pesetas to the amount he should receive in sterling being offered to each exporter, irrespective of what part of the country he is in.