The Crisis of the Early 1970s

Abstract

The breakthrough in the gold war had come with the Washington Agreement of 1968. Nonetheless, as we have seen, it was some time before this breach in America’s defences could be widened enough for the gold price really to ‘take off’. Only in June 1972 did the price break free from a level around $40 to one around $65, and only with the oil crisis of late 1973 did it become established safely above $100. It was not a moment too soon — indeed the ruthlessness of South Africa’s tactics in this period (above all the huge cut in gold output of 1973–4) reflected in good part Pretoria’s sheer desperation. For the Republic was faced with a new wave of internal unrest, a rapidly deteriorating economic situation, and the dire consequences of changes in the structure of the EEC.