what was the goal of the bretton woods conference in 1944? course hero

The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference

(1944), commonly known as Bretton Wood conference, was held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II.

Full Answer

What was the Bretton Woods Conference?

The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, which would become known as the Bretton Woods conference for the agreement reached there, saw the representatives of 44 nations, including the Soviet Union and China, gather to create a new postwar international monetary system. For the 730 attendees, the stakes could not have been higher.

What was Bretton Woods and why was it important?

In truth, Bretton Woods was actually the end of a confusing campaign between a faltering British Empire and a somewhat reluctant, rising American one. And the story of how the Allies came to the agreement is rife with ironies.

What was the Bretton Woods Act of 1945?

Congress passed the Bretton Woods act in July 1945, legally pegging the dollar to gold. In December that year, Parliament passed Bretton Woods as a condition for receiving a loan from the United States which Keynes had desperately and bitterly negotiated.

Who controlled the Bretton Woods conference?

The conference at Bretton Woods was in fact controlled by a US Treasury bureaucrat, Dr. Harry Dexter White.

What currency could be used in Bretton Woods?

The only option was to anchor the international monetary system to the one currency that could: the US dollar. There is one other irony in the power play between empires that was happening at Bretton Woods, involving the rising military empire of the Soviet Union.

What was Keynes' vision of the postwar world?

Keynes’ vision of the postwar world centered upon what he initially called a European Reconstruction Fund, which became the World Bank at the Bretton Woods conference, and which would provide for long-term economic investment and growth amongst member nations.

What did Keynes know about the Bancor?

Keynes knew the temper of the conference, and that there was opposition to his idea of the Bancor as an international currency. However, White had deliberately inserted in the IMF drafts a benign phrase, “gold and gold-convertible exchange,” whenever a particular unit of account was needed.

What was the name of the clearing house that White created?

There was one major difference, however: White’s vision of a monetary clearing house, which he called the International Monetary Fund (or IMF), would perform the functions of a central banker by controlling capital flows within the international system.

Was Bretton Woods a confusing campaign?

In truth, Bretton Woods was actually the end of a confusing campaign between a faltering British Empire and a somewhat reluctant, rising American one. And the story of how the Allies came to the agreement is rife with ironies.