The Bretton Woods Agreement Implemented A System Of

On 13. April 2021, in Allgemein, by zauggs

Economists and other planners understood in 1944 that the new system could only begin after a return to normality after the interruption of the Second World War. It was expected that after a short transition period, the international economy would not recover for more than five years and that the system would be operational. Historically, gold has been used as a monetary and monetary unit corresponding to a certain amount of gold (time questions 2002). Before the First World War, gold was the basis of the national monetary system (Hudeczek 1969: 38). In 1815, at the „Vienna Congress“, the Allies signed a collection of directives for international finance, known as the „rules of the game“ (Weil, Davidson 1971: 12, Guillebaud 1947: 3). These rules provided the framework for economic and political action (Degner, 1965: 43, Global Policy in 2004). This act created the foundations of our monetary system (Weil, Davidson 1971: 12). With regard to the interests of the construction and promotion of world trade, a reorganization of the monetary system was necessary (Genonicker 1967: 47). In 1922 the gold exchange standard was introduced at the Genoa conference. This means that in addition to gold, central banks could use the money of the victorious power, the dollar and the pound sterling, as reserves of money (2005). The dollar and the pound were the same as gold (gold pages 2005).

The Bretton Woods system was put in place as a more stable replacement for the gold standard under which all currencies were converted to gold. Under the new agreement, the dollar was the standard for international transactions, which were valued at one ounce of gold. The fact that the United States held a large portion of the world`s gold reserves allowed the dollar to play its new role as a standard currency on which the stock markets were based. Despite the fact that it was modified and shaped by events, it remained fundamental to the international monetary framework until the procedure seemed to show, in the early 1970s, that it had collapsed and was about to be replaced by new provisions (Scammel 1977: 108). Theoretically, the reserve currency of the Bancor (a global monetary unit that has never been implemented) would be proposed by John Maynard Keynes; However, the United States objected and its request was accepted, so that the „reserve currency“ became the U.S. dollar. This meant that other countries would link their currencies to the U.S. dollar and, once convertibility was restored, buy and sell U.S. dollars to keep exchange rates in plus or minus 1% of parity.

Thus, the U.S. dollar played the role that gold had played below the gold standard in the international financial system. [25] Despite its name, the World Bank was not (and is) not the central bank of the world. At the time of the Bretton Woods agreement, the World Bank was created to lend to European countries devastated by the Second World War. The World Bank`s focus has changed in lending to economic development projects in emerging countries. Even based on the experience of the interwar period, American planners developed a concept of economic security – that a liberal international economic system would improve post-war peace opportunities. One of those who saw such a security link was Cordell Hull, the US Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944. [Notes 1] Hull believed that the main causes of the two world wars were economic discrimination and trade war. Hull argued Despite the disintegration, the Bretton Woods Summit and the agreement are responsible for a number of particularly important aspects in the financial world. First, the creation of the IMF and the World Bank. To date, these two institutions are of paramount importance to the global economy.

Thus, the new system would (initially) be free from government interference in their monetary supply, as they did during the years of economic turbulence that preceded the Second World War.

 

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