Description
Book SynopsisThe demise of sterling as an international currency was widely predicted after 1945, but the process took thirty years to complete. This book challenges traditional explanations of this demise by arguing that it was prolonged by the weakness of the international monetary system and by collective interest in its continuation.
Trade Review'Catherine Schenk tells the story of the changing fortunes of sterling across the second half of the twentieth century. This ranges over everything from convertibility, reserve currencies, sterling balances, the euro-currency markets, the international financial architecture, and a great deal more. Sterling has also been placed in the context of the international monetary system, and in the context of the growing literature on the economic and wider history of the period. It is an excellent account of difficult territory.' Forrest Capie, Cass Business School and Official Historian of the Bank of England
'Anyone concerned about how to resolve the global imbalances in the international economy today needs to read Catherine Schenk's detailed study of the political and economic difficulties that bedevilled Britain's decades-long effort to eliminate the 'sterling problem' left over from World War II. Her detailed analysis of the issues that confronted British policymakers and how they were resolved shows how hard it is to correct global imbalances once they exist, even with the best of intentions and international cooperation. For, even if the stakes diminish over time, as they did with British sterling, the stake holders and their interests keep changing as well.' Larry Neal, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Table of ContentsList of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction and outline of the book; Part I. Reconstructing the International Monetary System 1945–59: 2. The post-war international monetary system 1945–50; 3. Return to convertibility 1950–9; Part II. Accelerating the Retreat: Sterling in the 1960s: 4. Sterling and European integration; 5. The sterling devaluation 1967: relations with the USA and the IMF; 6. Sterling and the City; 7. Multilateral negotiations: sterling and the reform of the international monetary system; 8. The sterling agreements of 1968; Part III. Sterling's Final Retreat 1970–92: 9. Sterling and the end of Bretton Woods; 10. Years of crisis 1973–9; 11. The aftermath 1980–92; 12. Summary and conclusions; Index.
