Monetary War and Peace
London, Washington, Paris, and the Tripartite Agreement of 1936

Examines how the democracies shifted from monetary war to peace during the Great Depression with the Tripartite Agreement of 1936.

Max Harris (Author)

9781108484954, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2021

250 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.593 kg

'Using primary data sources including recently released Bank of England archives, Max Harris shows that the late 1930s tripartite currency stabilization arrangement between the US, France and the UK bore many of the hallmarks of the post-war Bretton Woods system. Deeply researched and elegantly written, Monetary War and Peace offers a fresh perspective on a little-known period in monetary history that contains valuable lessons for today.' Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University

The international monetary system imploded during the Great Depression. As the conventional narrative goes, the collapse of the gold standard and the rise of competitive devaluation sparked a monetary war that sundered the system, darkened the decade, and still serves as a warning to policymakers today. But this familiar tale is only half the story. With the Tripartite Agreement of 1936, Britain, America, and France united to end their monetary war and make peace. This agreement articulated a new vision, one in which the democracies promised to consult on exchange rate policy and uphold a liberal international system - at the very time fascist forces sought to destroy it. Max Harris explores this little-known but path-breaking and successful effort to revolutionize monetary relations, tracing the evolution of the monetary system in the twilight years before the Second World War and demonstrating that this history is not one solely of despair.

Abbreviations
Introduction
1. A classical prelude, 1880–1914
2. Britain's biggest blunder, 1914–1931
3. Hostilities commence, 1931–1933
4. Washington declares war, 1933–1935
5. Negotiating peace, 1935–1936
6. A new order, 1936–1939
7. Gold and dollars, 1936–1937
8. Keeping France afloat, 1937–1938
9. Battle for sterling, 1938–1939
10. From Bretton Woods to today
Conclusion
Appendix A: exchange intervention empirics
Appendix B: data sources
Appendix C: Tripartite statement
Acknowledgments.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Monetary economics [KCBM], Macroeconomics [KCB], Economics [KC], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]