Wartime demand affects the wider market before every prospective combatant has entered the war. Neutral American and Japanese programmes can face higher prices or materials that are difficult to obtain because belligerents are buying them. Delaying the European war changes those conditions as well as the dates of military orders. Continued imports consequently form part of the counterfactual's industrial assumptions.
Notable Point · 38:23-39:45
A European war changes material supplies for neutral builders
Countries outside the fighting can still lose access to affordable materials as belligerents buy up world supplies.