Stabilisation of the monetary system

Abstract

The devaluation of the British Pound and the most speculation in gold and the dollar have lead to a hectic activity on the part of the monetary authorities in the industrial countries of the West. It is unlikely that anybody should have regarded the splitting up of the gold market—necessary though it was as a counter-measure—as a panacea which would prove efficacious in the long run. At the meeting in Stockholm of the Club of Ten the attempt was therefore made to parry the diminshing importance of gold within the monetary system by a speedier activation of the Special Drawing Rights—“the paper gold”. This constituted without doubt a decisive step towards rationalising and stabilising the international monetary system.