Home > Bretton Woods system
The Bretton Woods system of international economic management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the major industrial states. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order in world history intended to govern monetary relations among independent nation-states.Preparing to rebuild global capitalism as World War II was still raging, 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel , situated in the New Hampshire resort town of Bretton Woods, for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. The delegates deliberated upon and finally signed the Bretton Woods Agreement during the first three weeks of July 1944.
Setting up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international political economy, the planners at Bretton Woods established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later divided into the World Bank and Bank for International Settlements) and the International Monetary Fund. These organizations became operational in 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar after a sufficient number of countries had ratified the agreement.
The chief features of the Bretton Woods system were, first, an obligation for each country to maintain the exchange rateIn finance, the exchange rate between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 120 Japanese Yen to the Dollar means that ¥120 is worth the same as $1. An exchange rate is also known as of its currencyFor exchange rates, see here. A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is a form of money, where money is defined as a medium of exchange rather than e. a store of value. A currency zone is a country or region within a fixed value—plus or minus one percent—in terms of goldFor alternative meanings, see gold (disambiguation Gold is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Au ( L. aurum and atomic number 79. A soft, shiny, yellow, heavy, malleable, ductile (trivalent and univalent) transition metal, gold d; and, secondly, the provision by the IMF of finance to bridge temporary payments imbalances. In face of increasing strain, the system eventually collapsed in 19711971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). Events January January 1 British divorce Reform Act comes into force January 2 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disaster. Janua, following the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in' suspension of convertibility from dollarsThe United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. It is also widely used as a reserve currency outside of the United States. Currently, the issuance of currency is controlled by the Federal Reserve Banking system. The most commonly u to gold.
Until the early- 1970s, the Bretton Woods system was effective in controlling conflict and in achieving the common goals of the leading states that had created it, especially the United States.
1 The origins of the Bretton Woods system
The political bases for the Bretton Woods system are to be found in the confluence of several key conditions: the shared experiences of the Great Depression, the concentration of power in a small number of states, and the presence of a dominant power willing and able to assume a leadership role.
