Portugal. The country’s only exportable commodity is tungsten. The reason is that this element was used by the Nazis for steel in their weapons (replacing molybdenum in Big Bertha from the previous war, a US monopoly). Repeated pressure came from overseas, and then from Churchill. The price of tungsten rose from $1,100/ton in 1940 to $20,000/ton in 1941. In a few years of frenetic speculation, Portugal amassed a whopping $170 billion in this way. Eventually, the excuses were no longer credible, and on June 7, 1944, Salazar banned the sale of tungsten to Germany. The next day, the Normandy landings. Great fortunes are made only when great empires rise or fall, and Salazar was the last to let out his werewolf laugh, for the “wolf’s metal.”
