YYA > but the Zionists controlled the limited supply of ‘certificates’ issued by the British…
there was another issue here, according to research I saw some time ago: initially, donations were coming thru major gvirim, but then in 1920-30s Sochnut centralized donations and directed them towards kibbutzim and acquiring land rather than manufacturing in Tel Aviv area – for ideological reasons. In hind side, land was important factor, of course, but the price was that manufacturing had potential of generating wealth, giving jobs to new arrivials, while kibbutzim were money pits. So, for example, German Jews were not interested in coming to a place with no job prospects until it was too late.