An Exchange Rate History of the United Kingdom
1945–1992

This history of sterling shows how the Bank of England defended the pound and managed foreign exchange.

Alain Naef (Author)

9781108839990, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 September 2022

200 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.54 kg

'Naef's financial history of the United Kingdom focuses on the management of the pound sterling exchange rate since World War II. He uses data on market operations from the Bank of England's archives to document the bank's efforts to defend and stabilize the rate during currency crises in 1949, 1967, and 1976.' Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs

How did the Bank of England manage sterling crises? This book steps into the shoes of the Bank's foreign exchange dealers to show how foreign exchange intervention worked in practice. The author reviews the history of sterling over half a century, using new archives, data and unseen photographs. This book traces the sterling crises from the end of the War to Black Wednesday in 1992. The resulting analysis shows that a secondary reserve currency such as sterling plays an important role in the stability of the international system. The author goes on to explore the lessons the Bretton Woods system on managed exchange rates has for contemporary policy makers in the context of Brexit. This is a crucial reference for scholars in economics and history examining past and current prospects for the international financial system. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. 'The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation' (here https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/an-exchange-rate-history-of-the-united-kingdom/68B7E57D9884394B815C76D48ACD3FB6).

Introduction
1. Sterling's postwar role and lessons from the 1947 convertibility crisis
2. The 1949 devaluation: readjusting the postwar parities
3. The reopening of the London foreign exchange market: Sterling's window on the world. 4. The bank on the market
5. The reopening of the London gold market in 1954: sealing the fate of sterling and the international system
6. 1958 convertibility and its consequences. 7. The gold pool
8. Cooperation and the fed swap network
9. The 1964–7 currency crisis
10. The 1967 devaluation and the fall of the gold pool
11. The consequences of the devaluation: ongoing crisis and window dressing at the bank of England
12. Britain, Nixon and the end of Bretton woods
13. Was the IMF crisis 'natural' or 'manmade'
14. Britain's last currency crisis
Conclusion
Data availability
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Finance [KFF], Finance & accounting [KF], Economic history [KCZ], Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], Economics [KC]