The evolution of production
Agricultural production
Despite the failures of monetary policy, production increased fairly rapidly between 1945 and 1949. This recovery did not occ…
The consequences of the failure of the Gold Exchange Standard and of the world depression
In order to safeguard exchange-rate stability, France, England, and the United States signed an agreement on September 25, and Holland joined the agreement in November 1936. Shortly before that, the price of gold had been fix…
The conditions of failure
After the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, the depression spread rapidly and Great Britain was unable to escape its advance. Wholesale prices fell by 25 percent between 1929 and 1931, while unemployment, which re…
Imperial preference and trade agreements
Within the members of the sterling area, a series of agreements were signed with the aim of encouraging trade. These initiatives led to the system known as “imperial preference” and to several trade agreement…
The stabilization of the franc (1926–1928)
The consequences of Britain’s return to the gold standard at the prewar parity were particularly unfavorable for the British economy, especially because France had previously devalued the franc, reducing the definition establ…
The Genoa Conference (1922) and the birth of the Gold Exchange Standard
The International Monetary Conference held in Genoa in 1922 adopted a number of “resolutions,” the ninth of which led to the establishment of the gold exchange standard. These resolutions emphasized four essential points:
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Competition between London and New York became evident on several occasions in certain credit operations.
We may cite two examples.
In 1925, the Coffee Institute of Brazil sought to obtain a loan from New York in order to build storage facilities for coff…
Did Mendès-France’s resignation in April 1945 mean a refusal of any price and wage policy that, once set in motion, would soon assume large proportions?
Ignorance of economic mechanisms largely accounts for this policy, which helped direct part of the active population toward an unproductive and already overcrowded commercial sector, drawn, if not by the black market, at leas…
The Failure of the London Conference (1933)
The depression of 1929–1933 had multiple causes unrelated to the international monetary system itself. It nevertheless became an additional factor in that system’s collapse. From September 1931 onward, the breakdown of the go…
Exchange Controls
Devaluation not only failed to prevent capital flight; it frequently intensified it. Most Latin American republics, whose currencies depreciated in 1929 and 1930, resorted to exchange controls in 1931 and 1932. In Europe, Den…
