The principal goal of the postwar economic settlement was to avert a recurrence of the protectionism associated with economic depression and the rise of, well, Hitler.
The D-mark would have soared in value, wrecking German exports, while protectionism and competitive devaluations elsewhere would have shredded the EU's single market.
From pirated DVDs to knock-off designer brands, the country has a thriving counterfeit culture, often facilitated by local protectionism and a reluctance on the part of the authorities to enforce fledgling intellectual property laws.
The result of such meddling and protectionism is that employment is still falling in the sector; and the latest figures show that, for the first time in almost 50 years, British workers make more cars than the French.
His speech advocated nationalism, protectionism, and reeked of chippiness, arguing that his country was getting a raw deal in the EU.
It epitomises all the worst aspects of local protectionism".
At the G20 it was clear that the biggest of these are the threat of protectionism, the damaging effects of corruption and global tax avoidance, and the instability caused by conflict and disease.
And once the euphoria and Diana-esque hysteria that surrounded Barack Obama's inauguration recedes, the Irish government soon may be facing a president more committed to American protectionism than an open economy, to a White House that will punish US companies that seek to set up in Dublin rather than Detroit or Cork rather than Chicago.
Obama warned against torpedoing this trade agreement, saying that protectionism would undercut economies worldwide: "The lesson is not that we pull up the drawbridge and build a moat around ourselves".
Nicolas Sarkozy's proposed solution here is protectionism and attacks on French tax exiles, while the leading opposition contender, François Hollande, has promised a massive expansion of the state, a rise in the pension age and a potentially devastating 75% tax on the rich.
But the summit did succeed in getting things done, including a $1 trillion injection of funds that at least helped stabilise the global economy's rate of descent, and kept protectionism at bay.
