Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:17:25.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The rise and fall of the dollar (or when did the dollar replace sterling as the leading reserve currency?)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2009

BARRY EICHENGREEN  and
MARC FLANDREAU
BARRY EICHENGREEN
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, [email protected]
MARC FLANDREAU
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, [email protected]
Get access

Extract

Much as Paul David described the invention of the mechanical typewriter – it was invented 51 times before being patented by Christopher Sholes in 1867, licensed to the Remington Company and successfully commercialized – the connections between the gold-exchange standard and the Great Depression have been discovered repeatedly. They were discovered by Ehsan Choudhri and Levis Kochin in a seminal article in 1980. They were discovered by Barry Eichengreen and Jeffrey Sachs in articles published in 1985 and 1986. They were discovered by James Hamilton in an insightful article published in 1988. They were discovered by Peter Temin in his Robbins Lectures published in 1989. They were discovered by the now chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in his 1994 Journal of Money Credit and Banking Lecture. Moreover, these contributors to the contemporary literature had important antecedents, including Robert Triffin in the 1950s, Ragnar Nurkse in the 1940s, and Leo Pasvolsky in the 1930s.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 13 , Issue 3: Foreign Exchange Reserves and the International Monetary System , December 2009 , pp. 377 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © European Historical Economics Society 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Accominotti, O. (2009). The sterling trap: foreign reserves management at the Bank of France, 1928–1936. This volume.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acena, P. M. (2004). El oro del Banco de Espana en Paris. Un episodio de la financiacion de la Guerra civil. In Economia y cambio historico. Estudios en homaje a luis Angel Rojo, vol. II, Madrid: Editorial Complutense, SA, pp. 149–74.Google Scholar
Aliber, R. Z. (1966). The Future of the Dollar as an International Currency. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Banca d'Italia, Accounting Department (1993). I bilanci degli Istituti di Emissione 1894–1990. Rome and Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Bank for International Settlements, Monetary and Economic Department (BIS) (1932). The gold exchange standard. Unpublished document, Basel, 26 October 1932.Google Scholar
Bernanke, B. (1995). The macroeconomics of the Great Depression. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 27, pp.1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blancheton, B. (2001). Le pape et l'empereur. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, A. I. (1963). Monetary Policy under the International Gold Standard: 1880–1914. New York: Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Google Scholar
Cassell, G. (1928). Postwar Monetary Stabilization. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassell, G. (1930). The supply of gold. In First Interim Report of the Gold Delegation of the League of Nations. Geneva: League of Nations, Annex X.Google Scholar
Cassell, G. (1936). The Downfall of the Gold Standard. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Chinn, M. and Frankel, J. (2008). Why the euro will rival the dollar. International Finance 11 (1), pp. 49–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choudhri, E. and Kochin, L. (1980). The exchange rate and the international transmission of business cycle disturbances: some evidence from the Great Depression. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 12, pp. 565–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conant, C. A. (1910). The Banque Nationale de Belgique, National Monetary Commission, vol. 16. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Coste, P. (1932). La lutte pour la suprématie. Les grands marchés financiers, Paris, Londres, New York, foreword by Pierre Quesnay. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
De Cecco, M. (1974). Money and Empire. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eichengreen, B. (2006). Global Imbalances and the Lessons of Bretton Woods. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichengreen, B. and Sachs, J. (1985). Exchange rates and economic recovery in the 1930s. Journal of Economic History 45, pp. 925–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichengreen, B. and Sachs, J. (1986). Competitive devaluation and the Great Depression: a theoretical reassessment. Economics Letters 22, pp. 67–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einzig, P. (1931). The Fight for Financial Supremacy. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Einzig, P. (1935). World Finance 1914–1935. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Emden, P. H. (1938). Money Powers of Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: D. Appleton.Google Scholar
Federal Reserve Board (1943). Monetary Statistics of the United States. Washington, DC: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Google Scholar
Flandreau, M. (2003). Crises and punishment: moral hazard and the pre-1914 international financial architecture. In Flandreau, M. (ed.), Money Doctors: The History, Theory and Policy of International Financial Advice. London: Routledge, pp. 13–48.Google Scholar
Flandreau, M. and Gallice, F. (2005). Paris, London and the international money market: lessons from Paribas, 1885–1913. In Bussiere, E. and Cassis, Y. (eds.), London and Paris as International Financial Centres in the 20th Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 78–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flandreau, M. and Jobst, C. (2005). The ties that divide: a network analysis of the international monetary system, 1890–1910. Journal of Economic History 65 (4), pp. 977–1007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flandreau, M. and Komlos, J. (2006). Target zones in theory and history: credibility, and policy autonomy. Journal of Monetary Economics 53 (8), pp. 1979–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. and Schwartz, A. (1963). A Monetary History of the United States, 1863–1960. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gayer, A. D. (1937), Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilisation: A Study of the Gold Standard. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gregory, T. E. (1932). The Gold Standard and its Future. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. (1988). The role of the gold standard in propagating the Great Depression. Contemporary Policy Issues 6, pp. 67–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatase, M. and Ohnuki, M. (2009). Did the structure of trade and foreign debt affect reserve currency composition? Evidence from interwar Japan. This volume.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawtrey, R. (1923). Monetary Reconstruction. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Jobst, C. (2009). Market leader: the Austro-Hungarian Bank and the making of foreign exchange intervention, 1896–1913. This volume.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. (1997). France, Gold and the Great Depression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1923). A Tract on Monetary Reform. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1925). The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kindleberger, C. (1967). The politics of international money and world language. Essays in International Finance 61, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Kiyotaki, N. and Wright, R. (1989). On money as a medium of exchange. Journal of Political Economy, 97, pp. 927–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kooker, J. (1976). French financial diplomacy: the interwar years. In Rowland, B. M. (ed.), Balance of Power or Hegemony: The Interwar Monetary System. New York: New York University Press, pp. 83–146.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (1980). Vehicle currencies and the structure of international exchange. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 12, pp. 513–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, P. (1984). The international role of the dollar: theory and prospect. In Bilson, J. F. O. and Marston, R. C. (eds.), Exchange Rate Theory and Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 261–78.Google Scholar
League of Nations (1930). Legislation on Gold. Geneva: League of Nations.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. (1938). America's Stake in International Investments. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Lindert, P. H. (1969). Key currencies and gold, 1900–1913. Princeton Studies in International Finance 24, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2001). Monitoring the World Economy. Paris: OECD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margairaz, M. (2005). La SDN, les banques d’émission et les statistiques monétaires entre les deux guerres. In Feiertag, O. and Margairaz, M. (eds.), Mesurer la monnaie. Paris: Albin Michel, pp. 149–68.Google Scholar
Mlynarski, F. (1929). Gold and Central Banks. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Moggridge, D. (1969), The Return to Gold, 1925. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mouré, K. (1991). Managing the Franc Poincaré: Economic Understanding and Political Constraint in French Monetary Policy, 1928–1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouré, K. (2002), The Gold Standard Illusion: France, the Bank of France, and the International Gold Standard 1949–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mundell, R. (2000). A reconsideration of the twentieth century. American Economic Review 90, pp. 327–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, M. (1936). Paris as a Financial Center. London: P. S. King.Google Scholar
Nathan, R. (1938). Le rôle international des grands marchés financiers. Publications de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales. Geneva and Paris: Sirey.Google Scholar
Nurkse, R. (1944). International Currency Experience. Geneva: League of Nations.Google Scholar
Palyi, M. (1972). The Twilight of Gold. Chicago: Henry Regnery.Google Scholar
Pasvolsky, L. (1933). Current Monetary Issues. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Rist, C. (1933). Essais sur quelques problèmes économiques et monétaires. Paris: Sirey.Google Scholar
Royal Institute of International Affairs (1931). The International Gold Problem. London: Humfrey Milford.Google Scholar
Schuler, K. (1992). Currency boards. Unpublished PhD dissertation, George Mason University.Google Scholar
Temin, P. (1989). Lessons from the Great Depression. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Temin, P. and Vines, D (2008). Gold scarcity and the Great Depression. Unpublished manuscript, MIT.Google Scholar
Triffin, R. (1960). Gold and the Dollar Crisis: The Future of Convertibility. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ugolini, S. (2008). Managing a foreign portfolio before the gold standard era: the National Bank of Belgium in the 1850s. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar