CWT Ideology. Aleksey Muratov
had real value and was literally worth that value in gold.
De Gaulle did not intend to bring back the gold standard,
which would ensure the stability of the global financial system.
Quite the contrary, he was proposing a return to the role of gold
as the general equivalent. Americans were torn between the
Vietnam War and problems in the Caribbean, they hoped that
the anti-dollar rhetoric of the French leader would remain just
words. However, it did not go that way.
A secret report by famous economists Robert Triffin and
Jacques Rueff, prepared in 1959, informed General De Gaulle
that the forced participation of France in the so-called “Gold
Pool” was ruining the economy. The international structure of
the central banks of seven Western European countries under
the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which
included France, were acting through the Bank of England.
It was not only keeping the international price of gold at $35
per ounce (one ounce is equal to approximately 31 grams) for
the convenience of Washington but was also trading the gold
for their benefit and reporting monthly to the US financial
authorities. If they had to increase the selling volume of the
metal, the pool participants gave the Americans the gold
from their reserves. If the pool bought more than sold, the
difference was shared at a humiliating ratio: half was given
to the Americans, half to the others. France had 9%. Experts
reported to de Gaulle that the activities of the Gold Pool had
caused over $3 billion in loss to the Europeans.
General de Gaulle knew he irritated the US government,
particularly after France had accelerated development of its
own nuclear weapons program in the early 1960s. In January
of 1963 De Gaulle rejected the “multilateral nuclear force”
created by the Pentagon and he took back the control of the
Atlantic fleet of France from NATO. By that time only two
French divisions remained under the American command
instead of the fourteen that were agreed on. However, the
Americans never guessed that this was just the beginning.
In 1965 De Gaulle formally proposed to his American
counterpart Lyndon Johnson 1.5 billion dollars in cash from
the French state reserves to be exchanged for gold. Washington
responded that the US would regard such an action by France
as unfriendly and would have consequences. “Politics is
too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”, – retorted
the general and announced that France was walking out on
NATO
In spring of 1965 a French ship anchored in New York
harbor. It was not a combat vessel, but it had a weapon with
which Paris intended to win the financial battle with the
United States. The French ship had brought bank notes to the
value of 750 million dollar to the United States in order to
exchange them for “real money”, that is for gold. That was
the first tranche payment to the Federal Reserve System.
“All the formalities are met. The representative of the
Bank of France is ready to provide half of the said amount
to the US Treasury. The money is here”, – read the official
dispatch from Paris to Washington. Exchange under the rules
of the Gold Pool could only be made to the US Treasury. The
hull of the first French “money” ship was waiting to unload
the 750 million dollars. At an exchange rate of 1.1 grams
of gold per dollar, Paris’s move away from the US currency
turned out to be very productive. 825 tons of the yellow metal
is a large amount. Another ship carrying the same amount
was on the way and that was only the beginning. By the end
of 1965 there remained only about 800 million dollars of the
$ 5.5 billion French foreign reserves in the US.
Of course, de Gaulle had not brought down the dollar
alone. However, the French currency intervention had
created a dangerous precedent for the US. Following the
unpredictable move by France, zealous Germans pulled
together to change dollars for gold bars. Their exchange
was several times larger than the 1.5 billion dollars of
France. Americans were shocked by this bold play but had
to change the “greenbacks” for gold. Then the central banks
of other countries – Canada, Japan – followed suit. The news
about the US gold reserves at that time were like front-line
reports on the battle field.
In March of 1968 the Americans limited the free
exchange of dollars for gold for the first time. By the end
of July, 1971 the US authorities declared the gold reserve
of America had dropped to its lowest level – less than
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.