3 Bretton Woods monetary system. History of the Bretton Woods monetary system. The collapse of the "gold block" and the change in the gold market

The new monetary system was formed on June 22, 1944 in Bretton Woods (New Hampshire, USA) at the International Monetary and Financial Conference of the PLO, in which Great Britain, the USA and 42 other countries, including the USSR, took part. The UN conference adopted the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are essentially the charter of the IMF. The IMF Charter entered into force on December 27, 1945; The IMF began operations in May 1946 with 39 member countries; he started currency operations on March 1, 1947.

Anglo-American negotiations on a post-war international monetary system began in 1941 between Harry Dexter White (USA) and John Maynard Keynes (Great Britain). The basic principles and mechanisms of the new monetary system were formed at the conference in Bretton Woods during the discussion of two plans, which were published in 1943; the British version was prepared by J.M. Keynes; the American version was prepared by G. D. White. The concepts of the plans presented differed significantly, although in general issues they coincided. The Bretton Woods Agreements largely reproduced the main provisions of the American plan, reflecting the dominant economic position of the United States.

For the first time in history, the international monetary system received a legislative basis and was regulated by an intergovernmental agreement that established rules applicable to all participants and established a specialized international organization (IMF) to implement international agreements. In subsequent years, amendments were made to the IMF charter: the first was introduced on May 31, 1968, the second - on April 30, 1976.

The Bretton Woods monetary system (BMS) was based on the gold and foreign exchange standard; at a fixed but adjustable exchange rate and the establishment of two international lending institutions - the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The International Monetary Fund was intended to promote international monetary cooperation and balanced growth in international trade; ensure the stability of currencies; assist in the creation of a multilateral settlement system, in the elimination of currency restrictions; provide member states with funds in foreign currency for a time to correct imbalances in current settlements.

IBRD provides targeted development loans to host governments; its original mission was to help rebuild the economies of the countries hardest hit by the war. In 1956, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was created; in 1960 - the International Development Association (IDA); since 1965 the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has been operating; in 1988, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) was established. Together, all these organizations, led by the IBRD, form the World Bank Group, or World Bank.

Principles and elements Bretton Woods monetary system were designed to ensure the stability of exchange rates, balance of payments, multilateral settlement of current transactions and included the following:

• 1) gold exchange standard based on gold and two reserve currencies - the US dollar and the British pound sterling;
• 2) functions of gold. The function of world money was assigned to gold, which served as a universal equivalent, international means of payment and reserve. The share of gold at the end of the war in the structure of world liquidity, according to some estimates, was about half, the British pound sterling - about 40%, the American dollar - no more than 8%;
• 3) the price of gold and the parity of the dollar. The price of gold was determined in dollars - $ 35 per 1 tr. un; accordingly, the gold parity of the dollar was equal to 0.888671 g of pure gold. At that time, the dollar exchange rate was overvalued, which allowed the United States to profitably place its capital in other countries and simultaneously export goods and services at inflated prices, which was possible in the context of a general post-war deficit and high world demand for goods, services, investments;
• 4) convertibility of the dollar into gold. The US has pledged to maintain a fixed dollar price of gold and to ensure that the dollar is convertible into gold at a fixed price for central banks and governments in IMF member countries. The US gold reserve was 70-75% of the world gold reserve and was estimated at $ 20-25 billion at the official price; and it exceeded the US international liquid liabilities by an order of magnitude in the amount of dollars outside the country of issue;
• 5) parities of currencies of countries - members of the IMF. Countries - members of the IMF, except the United States, which pledged to guarantee the convertibility of their currencies in gold at the official parity, established a fixed parity of their currencies in relation to gold either directly or through the dollar based on its gold parity. For this, the exchange rate of the national currency against the dollar was determined at purchasing power parity (for example, 1: 4), and its parity in gold was determined through the dollar (0.888671 g: 4 = 0.222168 g), which had nothing to do with gold country reserve;
• 6) exchange rate. Countries - members of the IMF had to maintain the exchange rate of their national currencies in relation to other national

currencies within the limits of permissible fluctuations - plus / minus one percent of parity. Within the established band (± 1%), the exchange rate was determined by supply and demand. The stability of exchange rates was ensured by central banks, which, when the exchange rate deviated from the permissible limits in one direction or the other, intervened - bought or sold their currency for foreign currencies. In practice, the dollar was the only intervention currency, and in fact the system operated on the basis of the gold-dollar standard;

• 7) the procedure for changing the currency parity. The IMF charter allowed for the possibility of independent changes in the parity of national currencies up to 10% by member countries through its devaluation or revaluation. A change in the parity of national currencies over 10% was allowed only in conditions of "significant imbalance", after preliminary consultations with the IMF and subject to the adoption of obligations and implementation of coordinated measures aimed at eliminating the reasons that caused the need for devaluation / revaluation of the national currency;
• 8) convertibility of national currencies. The IMF Constitution prohibits member countries from any restriction on payments and transfers made by their residents in the course of current transactions, and any restrictive discriminatory practice; it obliges to maintain the free convertibility of foreign assets received as a result of current settlements into the national currency;
• 9) mutual lending mechanism member countries The IMF operates on the basis of its own funds (capital) of the Fund, which are formed from the quotas of the member countries, as well as from borrowed funds from the member countries of the Fund. The sizes of quotas are determined on the basis of the share of member countries in the world economy and international trade, taking into account the volume of GDP, current settlements and foreign exchange reserves. The quota of a country determines its relationship with the Fund, namely, the amount of subscription to the capital of the IMF; its ability to use the resources of the Foundation; the amount of SDRs accrued to her during their next distribution, and the number of votes in the Fund.

Contribution to the capital of the IMF is carried out as follows. Upon joining the IMF, each country must contribute 25% of its quota in gold (after the demonetization of gold - in SDR or in reserve currency), which determines its gold (reserve) share; the remaining 75% of the quota is paid in national currency. The national currency against the quota is credited to the IMF's account with the central bank or other institution designated by the member state as depositary for all the Fund's accounts in that country. The size of quotas is revised every five years, taking into account the changes that have occurred in the economies of the participating countries. In 1945, the authorized capital of the IMF was $ 8.8 billion (the US quota was 31%); in 1971 - $ 28.5 billion, of which 23.5% was the US quota.

To obtain a loan from the IMF in foreign currency (or SDRs), a country enters into a loan agreement with the Fund on a borrowing right basis. The loan is provided in the form of a purchase by the borrowing country of foreign currency (usually dollars), which is converted into local currency and credited to the IMF's account with its central bank or other institution designated as depositary. Lending from the IMF capital is carried out in shares - a gold (reserve) share and four credit shares. The reserve share determines the position of the country in the IMF and is included in the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the countries - members of the Fund.

The reserve share in the amount of 25% of the reserve asset quota is issued on demand without any restrictions, provided that the need to cover the balance of payments deficit is justified. Foreign currency loans in excess of the reserve (gold) share are divided into loan shares (tranches) in the amount of 25% of the country's quota each. The access of the IMF member states to the Fund's loan funds within the framework of loan shares is limited: the loan amount in the IMF assets cannot exceed 200% of the quota, including 75% of the quota already paid by subscription.

The maximum amount of the IMF loan that a country can receive as a result of using the reserve (25%) and loan shares (100%) is 125% of its quota (share in the Fund's capital); however, the IMF has the right to exceed the lending limit.

In due time, the borrowing country is obliged to repay the debt to the Fund. The loans are expected to be repaid for three to five years through the redemption by the borrowing country from the Fund of that part of its national currency under which the loan was taken; at the same time, the Fund must retain the initial 75% of the national currency of the borrowing country. If the volume of the national currency in the Fund was below 75% of the country's quota, then the country had the right to receive the difference free of charge;

10) conditionality of IMF loans. The first borrowings from the Fund were free, but soon the IMF loans became conditional, i.e. associated with the fulfillment of certain political and economic conditions by the borrowing countries. The principle of conditionality is manifested in the Fund's requirement for the borrowing country to adopt an agreed program of measures aimed at achieving macroeconomic and financial stabilization by methods of budgetary and monetary policy and the exchange rate regime.

The purpose of the stabilization programs is to reduce budget expenditures and increase revenues; in the deregulation of the economy and the liberalization of the foreign economic sphere. They usually include cuts in government spending, including for social needs (education, medicine, etc.); curbing the growth of wages, their "freezing" or reduction; increase in taxes, increase in discount rates, limitation of the volume of loans, devaluation of the national currency, etc.

• The first share in the Bretton Woods system was called gold, it was issued against gold automatically; in the Jamaican system, it is backed by SDRs or reserve assets and is called the reserve share.

1944 year. The Second World War is coming to an end, and its outcome is already clear to everyone. The Yalta Conference took place, during which Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill as a whole agreed on the future of the world for the coming decades. Huge spaces on the European mainland lie in ruins.

The forces of the belligerent countries are focused on the task of approaching the day of the final defeat of German Nazism and Japanese militarism. The rest of Hitler's allies have already been defeated. And at this very time, an invisible battle is going on on the financial front, the meaning of which, at first, not everyone understood.

Known as a ski resort, the American city of Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) suddenly became famous. Today this geographical name is mentioned in any textbook on economics. The city has become a historical landmark. This is where the Bretton Woods system is laid down. The basis for the functioning of all world (including foreign exchange) markets of the so-called free world was created.

Paris system

Any international monetary system is a special type of international treaty, in which the rules of interstate commodity-money turnover are spelled out. This is necessary in order to bring national monetary units to some common denominator and establish a universal standard of material value.

The first of the officially registered monetary systems, the Paris one, was intended to eliminate the confusion in the calculations of exports and imports, which inevitably arises when the governments of different countries pursue independent financial policies and print their own banknotes.

In fact, it de jure confirmed the order to which all the leading world powers had already arrived de facto as of the middle of the nineteenth century. Gold was the universal measure. For this reason, the Paris system is called the monetary-metal system. The attributes of gold coins, profiles minted on the reverse and coats of arms on the obverse did not matter. Their weight was important, and it determined the value of a particular currency.

This system worked successfully, but it also had its drawbacks. Calculations in gold coins and bullions were not easy to carry out. At the household level, other defects of coin circulation were also manifested. When they were used as a means of payment, natural wear and tear occurred, in other words, they were simply worn out. Carrying a bag of gold (if there was one, of course) is inconvenient and dangerous.

In the external economic theater, the Paris system was also not always convenient. Countries with mines and deposits automatically became rich, while the level of their development did not matter.

Transporting large amounts by sea was an adventurous business. Drafts, that is, bills of exchange, were increasingly used.

The time of the collapse of the Parisian monetary system was the First World War, after which the countries affected by the hostilities began the unlimited emission of the already familiar paper substitutes (banknotes and bank notes), this time almost unsecured and getting cheaper by leaps and bounds ...

Genoa

The fact that paper money would oust precious metal coins from circulation was clear long before the First World War. The only question was how to streamline the issue and induce the participating countries to stop printing banknotes according to the principle “I’m not sorry, I’ll draw some more”. Only eight years after the end of the great massacre in the Italian city

Genoa gathered delegations from 29 countries and five British colonies, which had a large share of the world's gross production. It is noteworthy that the representatives of the North American States did not take part in the work of the conference, but only watched its progress. But the delegation of the USSR, headed by G. Chicherin, took an active position, taking advantage of the opportunity to mark the actual existence of the first proletarian state on the world map.

The result of the Genoa Conference was the adoption of an agreement on a new monetary system, which was based on the so-called "mottos", that is, currencies with a specific gold content. This does not mean that their rates could not fluctuate relative to each other, but gold monometallism, which replaced the standard, stabilized the situation in the markets and streamlined calculations, although not immediately. The Genoese system existed until the end of World War II.

Initiators of the new system

The Bretton Woods system did not emerge spontaneously; it was initiated by representatives of the US business elite, who strove for world hegemony in the post-war world. At that time, the American economy was at its peak. The world war spun the flywheel of domestic production, which was already growing successfully thanks to the reforms carried out by President F.D. Roosevelt. By 1939, the consequences of the Great

The depressions were largely overcome, military orders fostered the development of industry, and food shortages, leading to famine in Europe, spurred agriculture. The United States had every reason to claim the role of world economic leader. The Bretton Woods monetary system was designed to consolidate this position for decades to come. But first, the International Monetary Fund was established. It began operating in 1947.

IMF

Superpowers, unlike ordinary citizens, love to borrow money. Especially if they print them themselves. 44 countries became the founders of the International Monetary Fund, of which only the United States could be a financial donor. All of Europe lined up for loans to improve the economic situation in countries affected by the war. Without these funds, it was not possible to get out of poverty, the situation was in favor of the United States, and the American leadership competently took advantage of its preferences.

Like any sober lender, the IMF demanded guarantees of the return of borrowed funds, and therefore was vitally interested in their efficient spending. In case of difficulties, stabilization took place in the form of additional loans to avoid default and collapse of national currencies. The economic situation in the IMF member countries was closely monitored.

Gold dollar standard and other principles

The stability of the exchange rates was the most important condition for the successful functioning of the "free market". The Bretton Woods monetary system has established a gold and foreign exchange standard. The only stable currency backed by the “yellow metal” at that time was the US dollar. For it, you could get about 0.89 grams of gold at any time. At its core, the standard was gold-dollar, and not abstractly gold-currency.

American greenish rough paper became world money precisely after the war. At first, there were relatively few of them. In the reserves of all other countries of the world, they accounted for only 10%. For comparison, the national banks saved their reserves in pounds sterling at that time about four times more often, and half was gold.

However, the dollar soon gained dominance. This was facilitated by many factors, in particular the huge gold reserves of the United States (three quarters of the world volume, or $ 20 billion), and the excellent macroeconomic indicators of the United States in the second half of the 40s, and the hegemony of American goods in the world market, expressed in an impressive positive foreign trade. balance.

Why devaluation is good

Devaluation, that is, a depreciation of the national currency, is usually seen as a symptom of a poor economic situation. But this phenomenon has its own plus. Imported goods, of course, become more expensive, but export becomes profitable, and the foreign trade balance is leveled in favor of the "victim". Another positive aspect of the devaluation is that the so-called "quick money" is starting to flow into the country. Domestic costs go down, there is an incentive to produce goods exactly here, and not where the currency is expensive, and the volume of foreign investment increases.

The creators of the Bretton Woods system, the principles of which were based on market mechanisms, understood the danger of such a development of events. They had at their disposal not only the "stick" (that is, the possibility of denying loans and other sanctions), but also the "carrot", that is, the willingness to always come to the aid of those who followed the rules. Even a certain amount of flexibility was allowed in the setting of exchange rates.

Obligations of the parties

When receiving an IMF loan, the IMF member countries undertook to maintain the exchange rate of their monetary unit in such a way that its fluctuations did not exceed one percent of the ratio to the US dollar established through the gold content. The Bretton Woods world system allowed, in exceptional cases, to bring this figure up to 10%, but if this threshold was exceeded, the perpetrators could be subject to IMF sanctions. The instrument of regulation was foreign exchange intervention. To implement them, dollars were needed again. The Federal Reserve sold them willingly.

How the Bretton Woods system worked in the early years

In the second half of the forties, bright prospects opened up for the US economy. Virtually all countries that took part, active or passive, in the war, suffered in one way or another. The enterprises of Germany, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria and other states of Western Europe needed time to reorganize production for the production of peaceful goods. There was a shortage of food, hygiene items, cigarettes, clothing and, in general, everything needed.

Eastern Europe came under the influence of the communist political system, in which economic recovery was accompanied by radical ideological changes and Sovietization. In addition to purely economic objectives, the Bretton Woods system had to show the possibilities and superiority of the free market. The Marshall Plan was used, which in a sense became a forced measure designed to help boost the European economy.

The global interests of the United States found themselves in a situation of internal conflict. On the one hand, in the event of the activation of European producers, the American export potential decreased. But if you look at this issue more broadly, it turned out that the impoverishment of the broad masses created the risk of pro-Stalinist forces coming to power, moreover, in a peaceful and democratic way. This President Truman could not allow.

World events

From the beginning of the fifties, European economies began to experience an upswing. The dollar continued to hold its leading position, all other world currencies were equal to it. The boundless confidence in the American currency, based on its guaranteed backing with gold, seemed unshakable. At the same time, the costs that the United States had to bear in the process of the confrontation with communism grew more and more. In 1949, the PRC was formed.

"Red China" became another headache for Uncle Sam, who lost control over a huge territory with a gigantic population. Literally a year later, the Korean War began, in which volunteers from the new socialist country took part (there were a lot of them), armed with Soviet equipment (it was very good, and there were also many of them). The formally united UN forces opposed this armada, but the obvious fact was that the main burden, including the financial one, was borne by the United States.

The fall in foreign trade turnover did not yet affect the general state of the dollar, the entire Bretton Woods world system rested on it, but the increase in expenditure items forced the Federal Reserve System to turn on the printing press at full speed.

As the economic situation in Britain, Japan and many European countries improved, there was a need to regulate exchange rates. In this case, the main instrument was foreign exchange intervention. If it was required to lower the exchange rate of the national currency against the dollar, it had to be offered to the market in large volumes. The rise in the exchange rate required a reverse measure, the sale of dollars.

The change in gold-coin parities towards revaluation was made, as a rule, reluctantly, since it led to a deterioration in the competitiveness of the goods produced. Devaluation was more in line with the national interests of the countries in which the Bretton Woods world monetary system operated. In Britain and Italy, it was carried out five times almost simultaneously (in 1964, 1967, 1969, 1972 and 1974), in West Germany three times (1961, 1967, 1969), in France twice in ten years (1957 and 1967). This measure was avoided by countries with weak economies, mainly for reasons of international prestige.

The increase in capital flows, the development of foreign exchange markets and other factors clearly indicated the impending crisis of the Bretton Woods monetary system.

French incident

The disparity between the volumes of cash dollars issued into circulation and exported abroad with the economic situation in the United States could not remain unnoticed by financial analysts. The first bell rang in 1965. For some reason, President De Gaulle suddenly remembered that the Bretton Woods system gives a guarantee of exchange for gold in the ratio of $ 35 per gram. The gold and foreign exchange reserve of France contained about a third of a billion (at that time the amount was astronomical).

The overall situation with the ability to fulfill obligations was difficult. There was a space race, the Americans wanted to land on the moon. The hard, dirty and very expensive Vietnam War continued. The US Treasury Department tried to hint that demanding an exchange of such a significant amount at such a moment was a move, to put it mildly, unfriendly, but De Gaulle was adamant, he, you see, trusted metal more than paper.

Dollars were exchanged, but the French president paid for it. Student unrest soon began, which escalated into a full-scale uprising. The technologies for creating riots were already worked out then. De Gaulle was soon forced to resign. But it became clear to everyone that the collapse of the Bretton Woods system was not far off.

Drawing rights

As the positive foreign trade balance of the United States declined, confidence in the dollar declined. To smooth out the growing contradictions, the IMF decided to use a mechanism under which Special Drawing Rights became conditional means of payment, a special currency that, unlike the US dollar, is not backed by gold, but formally equal in value to it. This currency surrogate was used for mutual offsetting of debts between the central banks of the IMF member countries. The crisis of the Bretton Woods system was gaining momentum, and if all countries with a dollar reserve presented these funds for payment in gold, then it would simply not be enough in the mid-sixties.

End

In 1971, violations of the terms of the Bretton Woods Agreement began. All the circumstances spoke of the imminent devaluation of the main world currency, it was expected. The first European allies of the United States - Belgium, Holland and West Germany - could not stand it. These countries introduced a floating rate that was driven by supply and demand in the foreign exchange markets. Japan held out longer, almost until September 1971, but eventually released the yen along the quotation waves as well.

Since, in fact, the dollar could no longer be freely exchanged for gold (de Gaulle's example is well remembered), the so-called "dollar standard" was introduced. The devaluation finally took place, the rate rose to $ 38 per troy ounce, but it was clear that this figure was rather arbitrary. All these processes took place within the framework of the recently concluded Smithsonian Agreement between the ten leading capitalist countries. The EEC countries took protective measures, agreeing on the maximum amount of fluctuations in their currencies of no more than one-half of the dollar margin (at the same time the term "Snake in the Tunnel" appeared).

After the introduction in the UK of the floating rate of the pound in 1972, the Bretton Woods system was effectively and legally abolished. An ounce of gold at that time was already worth more than $ 42.

Jamaica!

All currencies were divided into three groups. Free convertible (in the USSR they even came up with the abbreviation "FCC") are considered the most "solid", their rates should fluctuate within 1%. Requirements for conditionally convertible currencies are not so strict, up to two and a quarter. The rest of the money floats freely, they, according to the authors of the system, are of little interest to anyone. The Jamaican system marked the beginning of a situation in which, as one leading economist put it, the wheat that had not yet been grown was sold for unprinted money.

But that's another story, modern.

Currency market

Currency market is a set of relations organized in a certain way for the purchase and sale of the currency of one country for the currency of another country or securities in foreign currency.

Specific participants in the foreign exchange market work in the country's foreign exchange market. These include: authorized banks, various investment companies, currency exchanges, brokerage houses, foreign monetary organizations.

Authorized banks in the Russian Federation- these are commercial banks that have received licenses from the Central Bank of Russia to conduct operations with foreign currency.

The Russian foreign exchange market can be subdivided into exchange and over-the-counter (or interbank) ones.

Exchange currency market belongs to the category of organized markets. In this case, currency trades are carried out on currency exchanges. The role of currency exchanges is also in the fact that they quote currencies, form the ruble rate in relation to foreign currencies.

In the interbank foreign exchange market foreign exchange transactions are carried out by authorized banks both among themselves and with their clients who have foreign currency accounts in these banks.

Features of the foreign exchange market:

u The international character of foreign exchange markets based on the globalization of world economic relations, the widespread use of electronic communications for the implementation of transactions and settlements.

u Continuous, non-stop nature of transactions throughout the day, alternately in all parts of the world.

u Unified nature of foreign exchange transactions.

u Use of operations in the foreign exchange market for the purpose of protecting against foreign exchange and credit risks through hedging.

u A huge share of speculative and arbitrage operations, which many times exceed foreign exchange operations associated with commercial transactions. The number of currency speculators has increased dramatically and includes not only banks and financial and industrial groups, TNCs, but also many other participants, including individuals and legal entities.

Volatility of exchange rates, which does not always depend on fundamental economic factors The modern foreign exchange market performs the following functions:

u Ensuring the timeliness of international settlements.

u Creation of opportunities for protection against currency and credit risks.

u Ensuring the interconnection of world currency, credit and financial markets.

u Creation of opportunities for diversification of foreign exchange reserves of the state, banks, enterprises.

u Market regulation of exchange rates based on the interaction of supply and demand of currencies.

u Possibility of implementing monetary policy as part of state economic policy. The possibility of implementing coordinated actions of different states in order to implement the goals of macroeconomic policy within the framework of interstate agreements.

u Providing opportunities for participants in the foreign exchange market to obtain speculative profits through arbitrage operations.

4. Types of participants in the foreign exchange market

Buyers and sellers - a general distinction between participants in the foreign exchange market. Buyers are carriers of demand for currency, sellers are carriers of its supply. If we take into account that the exchange in the foreign exchange market is direct in nature, the roles of the buyer and seller on it do not differ over time. The buyer acts here at the same time as the seller.

Buyers and sellers in the foreign exchange market differ in terms of their civil status at physical and legal persons. In foreign exchange legislation, both receive certainty residents and non-residents, the content of which will be disclosed later.

For the most part, legal entities institutionally decorated, i.e. act as a certain type of organization. First of all, such organizations include banks ... They are the main subjects of monetary relations, the largest buyers and sellers of currency. Therefore, they can be considered the main participants in the foreign exchange market.

Many countries of the world, including Russia, have a two-tier banking system, which consists of a state banking institution (central bank) and commercial banks. The Central Bank, being a participant in the foreign exchange market, performs special functions related to its regulation. In Russia, not all commercial banks have the right to carry out foreign exchange transactions, i.e. to be subjects of the foreign exchange market, but only those of them who have a special license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. These commercial banks are called authorized banks .

International banking institutions and international financial organizations are one of the main participants in the global foreign exchange market.

Banks often use services currency exchange , buy and sell currency through this intermediary. The currency exchange is one of the leading institutions of the foreign exchange market.

An important role in the foreign exchange market is also played by exporters , whose activities are one of the important sources of foreign exchange in the domestic foreign exchange market, importing firms providing the main demand for foreign exchange, international monetary and financial organizations, having a regulatory effect on the functioning of regional and world currency markets.

The modern foreign exchange market is distinguished by the presence of such participants as brokerage houses and consulting firms ... These are intermediaries providing services for the purchase and sale of foreign exchange, consulting services, making forecasts regarding the dynamics of the foreign exchange market and selling relevant information, etc.

The institutions of the foreign exchange market carry out their activities in close cooperation with each other. Their set, organized in a certain way, is the system institutions of the foreign exchange market, the core of which is the bank. The effective functioning of this system is ensured in the presence of certain conditions that make up its infrastructure . The elements of the infrastructure of the foreign exchange market include means of communication and communications, a network of exchange offices serving the population, educational institutions that train relevant specialists, etc.

As already noted, currency risks are an integral part of the functioning of the foreign exchange market. Moreover, different categories of participants in the foreign exchange market treat them differently. Depending on this relationship, they act as entrepreneurs (investors), players (speculators) and hedgers .

Entrepreneurs, becoming participants in the foreign exchange market when conducting commercial transactions, are interested in minimizing foreign exchange risks in order to avoid additional losses. Investors, investing in various assets, pursue similar goals.

For players (speculators), on the contrary, high currency risks are a prerequisite for obtaining high profits from transactions in the market. Therefore, high risks are often deliberately provoked.

Hedgers are a special type of participants in the foreign exchange market. The main point of their activities is the implementation of special operations aimed at protecting (hedging) financial activities from adverse changes in the dynamics of exchange rates.

The modern world foreign exchange market, despite the difficulties, contradictions and crisis situations, largely due to the weakening of the dollar, is developing relatively dynamically. The globalization of the world economy has the most tangible impact on this process. It leads to an even closer intertwining of national currency markets, and hence to their interdependence. As a result, certain changes in one of the trade centers have an impact on the state of the world foreign exchange market as a whole. A factor that favorably affects the consolidation of national currency markets is the liberalization of currency legislation in many countries and the weakening of government influence on the currency sphere.

A characteristic feature of the modern world foreign exchange market is its regionalization. At the center of the processes associated with it are the leading world currencies: the US dollar (North and South America), the yen (the Far East and Southeast Asia), and the euro. The functioning of the regional segments of the world foreign exchange market occurs with varying degrees of stability. The European monetary system is the most stable. The least stability is characteristic of the functioning of the Asian foreign exchange market, which experienced deep crisis shocks in the late 90s.

So, the foreign exchange market is the main form of functioning of foreign exchange relations. It has a complex structure and a mechanism that allows for the coordination of the interests of its various participants, the main of which are banks.

5. Currency system is a form of organization and regulation of currency relations, which operates on the basis of national legislation and taking into account international agreements.

The elements of the monetary system include

u funds used as settlement or payment and settlement;

u bodies exercising currency regulation and control;

u conditions and mechanisms of currency convertibility;

u exchange rate determination regime;

u rules for international settlements;

u mode of functioning of precious metals markets;

u rules for obtaining and using credit funds in foreign currencies;

u currency restrictions mechanisms.

u World Monetary System (WMS) is a global form of organization of monetary relations within the framework of the world economy, enshrined in multilateral interstate agreements and regulated by international monetary and financial organizations. AIM includes currency relations and a currency mechanism.

u Foreign exchange relations called a set of monetary relations that determine payment and settlement transactions between national economies.

u Currency mechanism represents legal norms and instruments representing them both at the national and international levels.

u The main functions of the AIM should be noted as follows:

As main functions of the AIM the following should be noted:

u mediation of international economic relations;

u ensuring payment and settlement turnover within the world economy;

u providing the necessary conditions for a normal reproduction process;

u regulation and coordination of the regimes of national monetary systems;

u unification and standardization of the principles of currency relations

The main elements of the world monetary system:

u Reserve currencies and international accounting units;

u Conditions for mutual convertibility of currencies;

u Regulation of exchange rate regimes;

u Interstate regulation of currency restrictions;

u Unification of forms of international settlements and credit funds;

u Regime of world currency and gold markets;

u International monetary organizations, etc.

u There are the following stages in the formation of the AIM:

u 1. The Parisian monetary system (from 1867 to the 20s of the XX century);

u 2. Genoese monetary system (from 1922 to the 30s);

u 3. Bretton Woods monetary system (from 1944 to 1976);

u The main principles of the gold coin standard were the following:

u 1) established the gold content of national currency;

u 2) gold served as world money;

u 3) banknotes were freely exchanged for gold;

u 4) the exchange rate could deviate from monetary parities within the "golden points";

u 5) reserve currency - British pound sterling;

u 6) a tight relationship was maintained between the national gold reserve and the domestic supply of money;

u 7) the balance of payments deficit was covered by gold.

Parisian monetary system

Based on the gold coin standard and legally enshrined in an interstate agreement in 1867 at a conference of industrialized countries in Paris. It is characterized by a fixed gold content of national currencies and fixed exchange rates.

In 1837, the gold content of the dollar was officially fixed by setting the official gold price at $ 20.672 per troy ounce (31.1 g).

The British government fixed the official gold price at £ 4.248. Art. per ounce. The ratio of the price of gold, expressed in dollars and in pounds sterling, made it possible to determine the exchange rate: $ 20.672 / £ 4.248. Art. = 4.866, i.e. for 1 pound gave 4,866 dollars. This ratio was called monetary parity.

Exchange rates could fluctuate around the monetary parity within gold points by the cost of sending gold, the equivalent of one unit of foreign currency, between the monetary centers of Great Britain and the United States. The exchange rate of approximately $ 4.911 was called the golden point of exports, and the rate of approximately $ 4.861 was the golden point of imports Within the golden points, the exchange rate was determined on the basis of supply and demand. If, as a result of the depreciation, the exchange rate went beyond the gold points, then the outflow of gold from the country began, and the exchange rate returned to its previous place. As a result of the outflow of gold, there was a negative balance of payments, and as a result of the inflow, a surplus.

The balance of payments deficit was to be covered with gold. But since the gold reserves of the countries were limited, any imbalances had to be corrected and could lead to the depletion of official gold reserves. Therefore, during the period of imbalances in international settlements, in practice, it was often not the transport of gold from country to country that was used, but the mechanism of overflowing short-term capital by maneuvering interest rates. For example, in Great Britain, which was experiencing a balance of payments deficit at the beginning of the 20th century, the money supply contracted, as a result of which interest rates rose and the inflow of short-term capital from abroad increased, which made it possible to finance the balance of payments deficit. The existence of the gold standard up to the First World War not only gave stability to this monetary system, but also underpinned the sustainable development of the economies of the countries that were part of it.

Basic principles of the functioning of the Parisian monetary system:

u currency units of countries had gold content;

u the convertibility of each currency into gold was ensured both inside and outside the borders of a particular state;

u gold bars could be freely exchanged for coins, and gold was freely exported and imported, sold on international gold markets;

u maintaining a rigid relationship between the country's gold reserves and the domestic supply of money.

Genoese monetary system

Issued in 1922 at the Genoa International Economic Conference; was based on the gold exchange standard. The British pound sterling and the US dollar competed for leadership in the global foreign exchange market as reserve currencies. Exchange rates could fluctuate around the monetary parity within gold points by the cost of sending gold, the equivalent of one unit of foreign currency, between the monetary centers of Great Britain and the United States.

Attempts by Great Britain to restore the gold standard were unsuccessful: as a result of the overvaluation of the pound sterling, the balance of payments deficit increased. Great Britain was forced to abolish the convertibility of the pound into gold in 1931. This measure against the background of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s became a manifestation of the global currency crisis, the way out of which countries saw in the devaluation of their currencies.

The devaluation of the dollar by increasing the value of an ounce of gold from 20.65 to 35 dollars in 1933 was used by the United States, which had a surplus of payments, as a measure to promote its exports and create additional jobs in export industries, and reduce unemployment.

Against this background, countries, protecting themselves from foreign competition, were forced to start introducing high customs duties and import tariffs. The result of these measures was a reduction in foreign trade and international settlements.

As a result, the Genoese monetary system lost its elasticity and stability. The exchange of banknotes for gold in the internal circulation of all countries was stopped, and only the external convertibility of currencies into gold was preserved by agreement of the central banks of the United States, Great Britain and France. Another shock to the world monetary system was the economic crisis of 1937, which caused a new wave of currency depreciation. By the beginning of World War II, not a single stable currency remained.

Basic principles of the Genoese monetary system:

u gold retained the function of final monetary settlements between countries;

u The American dollar became the reserve currency, which, along with gold, was recognized as a measure of the value of the currencies of different countries, as well as the international credit means of payment;

u dollar was exchanged for gold by central banks and government agencies of other countries in the US Treasury at a fixed rate. Governments and individuals could purchase gold on the private market. The currency price of gold was formed on the basis of the official one;

u the equalization of currencies to each other and their mutual exchange were carried out on the basis of official currency parities expressed in gold and dollars;

u each country had to maintain a stable exchange rate of its currency relative to any other currency;

u a new element of the world monetary system was currency regulation, which was carried out in the form of an active monetary policy, international conferences and meetings.

Jamaican Monetary System

In the late 70s, a group of 12 Western European states of the European Economic Community (Common Market) joined forces in the monetary area to protect their economies from currency crises and actively influence the United States on solving international monetary problems, as well as to get rid of the need to constantly exert support for the US dollar. Was formed EMS- a monetary mechanism that allows to reduce fluctuations in exchange rates of the participating countries and contributes to the formation of a zone of monetary stability in Europe and facilitates the economic integration of European countries. On the basis of this system, from January 1, 2002, on the territory of the states belonging to the European Union (EU), introduced Single Pan-European Currency Unit(Unified All-European Monetary Unit, EURO) - as a means of achieving their full economic and political integration.

The current stage in the development of the world monetary system is associated with the decision of the meeting of the member countries of the International Monetary Fund in Kingston (Jamaica, 1976). Jamaican Monetary System- a modern international monetary system, based not on the monetary systems of individual countries (including the United States), but on legally enshrined interstate principles, in particular, on the principle of complete rejection of the gold standard.

This means: the abolition of the official price of gold and gold parities, permission to sell and buy gold at market prices, the right of countries to choose any exchange rate regime.

In the context of the instability of the national currencies of different countries in the 70s, a new type of international means of payment was introduced - SDR (Special drawing rights), a conventional monetary unit, which began to be used for non-cash international settlements by recording on special accounts and as a unit of account of the IMF. SDR began to perform a number of functions of world money: to regulate the balance of payments; replenishment of official foreign exchange reserves; commensurate with the value of national currencies.

SDR has no value of its own and no real collateral. The SDR rate is determined based on the weighted average rate of a set of currencies, the so-called - currency basket, including, for example, in 2005: US dollar - 45%; pound sterling - 11%; euro - 29%; Japanese yen - 15%.

Principles of the Jamaican Monetary System:

1. Transition of the gold exchange standard to a multicurrency market standard. The SDR standard was officially introduced. The SDR was declared the base of the Jamaican monetary system and the base of currency parities.

2. The demonetization of gold was legally completed, which was expressed in the fact that the official fixed price for gold was canceled, a floating market rate for gold was introduced, which is determined at exchange auctions, gold parities were canceled, and the exchange of dollars for gold was stopped.

Demonetisation of gold is the transformation of gold from a financial asset into a commodity, which is no longer used as a means of payment between the central banks of countries, but passes into the sphere of commodity circulation.

10. EUROPEAN MONETARY SYSTEM (EMU). Created in 1979 with the aim of maintaining monetary stability, ensuring Europe's progress towards economic integration and preventing trade disruptions due to fluctuations in exchange rates.

The creation of the European Monetary System (EMU) was supposed to lead to the creation of a full-fledged exchange rate mechanism, on the basis of which the European Monetary Fund (or the European Central Bank) would emerge. Ultimately, the European Monetary Fund will replace the European Monetary Cooperation Fund and will manage the aggregate foreign exchange reserves of the EMU member countries by intervening in foreign exchange markets and building up reserves in European currency units (ECU), which will act as European SDRs. It was assumed that in cases where domestic policies of individual countries began to threaten the stability of exchange rates, countries with strong currencies will resort to monetary expansion, while countries with weak currencies, on the contrary, will try to "squeeze" credit and money supply in circulation. The states that agreed to become members of the EMU were required to limit mutual exchange rate fluctuations to 2.25% in one direction or another (for countries in a difficult financial situation - 6% for the transition period). Initially, eight out of nine countries of the European Economic Community became members of the EMU, and only Great Britain decided not to participate in the single exchange rate mechanism.

Due to the differences in inflation rates that persisted throughout the first half of the 1980s between the EMU member countries, it was periodically necessary to revise exchange rates. Between 1979 and January 1987, these courses were revised eleven times; the twelfth revision took place on January 8, 1990, when a wider range of exchange rate fluctuations for the Italian lira was replaced by the standard narrow range for the EMU. EMU developed as a combination of fixed and adjustable exchange rate regimes. During periods of stability, countries enjoyed the many advantages of fixed exchange rates, and revisions and adjustments to exchange rates helped to address the challenges of maintaining competitiveness. However, periods of currency stability, interspersed with exchange rate revisions, could have occurred only because capital controls reliably protected central bank reserves from attacks by currency speculators in anticipation of another rate revision. In the first ten years of the EMU's existence, the governing national monetary and foreign exchange institutions retained limited political independence. However, by July 1, 1990, most of the EMU member states abandoned foreign exchange and capital controls, and the problem immediately arose of an “incompatible quartet” of political goals: free trade, freedom of capital movement, stability of fixed (controlled) exchange rates and independent credit and monetary policy. So Spain, Great Britain and Portugal entered the EMU exchange rate mechanism just at the moment when the system as a whole became very vulnerable, although it looked more stable. The strategy of abandoning exchange rate revisions and foreign exchange controls, as well as capital controls, seemed successful for some time, but already in August 1993 the exchange rate mechanism had to endure a difficult test: the actions of speculators forced the EMU to expand the range of permissible exchange rate fluctuations from 2.25 % up to 15%. In fact, the floating of European currencies has become much freer than ever before, be it the times of the Bretton Woods system, the "currency snake" or the central exchange rates of the EMU.

Yet the movement towards the creation of the European Monetary Union has accelerated. The 1995 Madrid summit confirmed the final and irrevocable transition to a system of fixed rates with the simultaneous introduction of a single European currency, called the euro. The European Central Bank was established on July 1, 1998; his prerogative was the implementation of a single monetary and monetary policy of the EU. Since January 1999, eleven countries of the European Union have adopted a single currency. During 1999-2001 euros should be used for non-cash payments and accounting, and from January 1, 2002, the single currency is introduced into cash circulation.

11. Foreign exchange policy is a set of activities carried out by the Central Bank of the country and other state bodies in the field of currency relations and monetary circulation, with the ultimate goal of influencing the country's economy and the purchasing power of the national currency.

This definition applies to the level of the nation state. However, it must be borne in mind that there are two more levels of consideration of monetary policy - these are enterprise level (corporation, bank), who take an active part in monetary relations and form their monetary policy, and interstate level, where the formation of the monetary policy of states takes place on the basis of interstate agreements in the monetary sphere.

The most important goal of monetary policy- to help ensure the external balance while not violating the internal balance of the country.

Monetary policy objectives:

1) Maintaining the stability of the national currency and ensuring non-inflationary economic growth;

2) Providing a system of mutual settlements with other countries;

3) Ensuring the flow of capital between industries and between countries;

4) Creation of conditions for a balanced balance of payments;

5) Formation of the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Monetary policy changes historically depending on the type of economic system of the state, the level of economic development, the evolution of the world monetary system.

Monetary policy can be divided into:

1. Structural (long-term ) - a set of long-term measures aimed at implementing structural changes in the national and world monetary system.

2. The current - a set of short-term measures aimed at the day-to-day operational regulation of the exchange rate, foreign exchange transactions, the activities of the foreign exchange market and the gold market.

Foreign exchange policy is implemented through the mechanism of foreign exchange regulation. There is no consensus in the economic literature on what constitutes foreign exchange regulation. So, B. Raisberg is considering currency regulation as the activity of state bodies to manage currency circulation, control foreign exchange transactions, influence the exchange rate of the national currency, and restrict the use of foreign currency.

12. Balance of payments is the ratio of payments made by a country abroad and receipts received from abroad for a certain period of time (month, quarter, year). Distinguish between the balance of payments for current transactions and the balance of capital and credit flows.
The most important component of the balance of payments for current transactions is the trade balance, which reflects the ratio of the value of exports and imports of the country's goods for the corresponding period. The balance of payments for current transactions also includes payments and receipts for transport, insurance, commission operations, tourism, interest and dividends on capital investments, payments for licenses for the use of inventions. The balance of payments also reflects the country's military spending abroad. The balance of capital and credit flows reflects payments and receipts on export-import of public and private long-term and short-term capital. This includes direct and portfolio investments, bank deposits, commercial loans, special financial transactions, etc. As noted, the state of the current account balance of payments has a direct impact on the country's exchange rate. With a chronically passive balance of payments, the exchange rate falls; with an active balance of payments, it rises. It should be borne in mind that for the dynamics of the exchange rate, the balance of payments on current transactions is not of primary importance between the two countries, but the overall balance of this balance in relation to all countries participating in the country's international settlements.
An important element of the balance of payments are balancing items, which include government gold and foreign exchange reserves, external government loans, loans from international monetary and financial organizations.
The general balance of payments of the country is formed by the balance of payments for current operations, the balance of capital and credit flows, as well as the movement of gold and foreign exchange reserves. The overall balance of payments of a country is always balanced, that is, its active and passive transactions are the same amount.
The balance of payments should be distinguished from the balance of payments, which represents the claims and obligations of a country in relation to foreign countries. These claims and liabilities include government (gold and foreign exchange and others) and private assets, direct investments, received and granted loans, liabilities of financial and non-financial corporations. Unlike the balance of payments, the balance of payments includes all claims and obligations in relation to other countries for which payments have not been made.
In the USSR, the main document in the field of external payment and settlement relations was the Consolidated Currency Plan (balance of payments of the USSR), drawn up by the USSR Ministry of Finance and the USSR State Planning Committee on the basis of the currency plans of ministries and departments and submitted to the government for consideration. After the government approved and approved by the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the plan for the country's economic and social development, it became law.

The consolidated currency plan included receipts of funds to the country and all payments to foreign countries. It consisted of five sections: trading operations; services; non-trading operations; loans and property; gratuitous assistance to foreign states.
The indicators of the consolidated currency plan were compiled in two categories of currencies: in freely convertible currencies and closed currencies of foreign countries.
The balance of payments of the Russian Federation was compiled for the first time in 1992 according to the methodology of the International Monetary Fund. The main source of foreign exchange earnings in Russia is the export of goods. Russia's main trade partners from non-CIS countries are Germany, Finland, USA, Great Britain, Italy and China. In the "near" abroad, the first places in terms of foreign trade turnover are occupied by Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Moldova. In general, these countries account for more than 90% of Russia's turnover with the CIS countries
The structure of Russia's export in recent years has not undergone significant changes. As before, crude oil, oil products, natural gas, as well as timber, products of the pulp and paper and chemical industries prevail in Russian commodity supplies abroad.
The main imports are imports of machinery and equipment, food products and agricultural raw materials. Let's analyze the balance of payments of Russia on current transactions for 1994-1997. and the first quarter of 1998 (US $ million).
On current transfers, the negative balance is explained by a fourfold decrease in the amount of humanitarian and technical assistance received by the country.
It should be noted that the overall balance of payments in Russia for these years is negative, which reflects the movement of capital between countries. There is a significant outflow of capital that is deposited in the accounts of Western banks. True, foreign direct investment in Russia increased. Non-residents invested in the financial sector, enterprises in the fuel and energy sector - in industries that provide a quick payback (food industry, public catering and trade).
A significant part of funds by non-residents was invested in government securities - GKO-OFZ (USD 3.1 billion). In addition to GKO-OFZ, the RF Government issued in the 1st quarter of 1998 a seven-year Eurobond loan in German marks in the amount of 1.25 billion German marks at the rate of 9.375% per annum. However, in 1998, foreign non-residents, in the face of an ever-worsening currency crisis, returned their funds, which negatively affected the balance of payments.
On the whole, Russia's balance of payments is in deficit. This, in particular, is evidenced by the large amount and the debit nature of the article "Errors and omissions".
The balance of payments deficit is financed through the transfer of payments for servicing the official external debt, the use of new domestic and foreign loans by government bodies.

13. The concept of currency and currency values

The term "currency" is used in two senses: firstly, it is the monetary unit of the state; secondly, these are banknotes of foreign states, as well as credit and payment documents, expressed in foreign currency units and used in international settlements (foreign currency). * In financial relations and financial law, in official and everyday vocabulary, the term "currency" is the most often used as a second meaning. In the sources of financial law, the above definition of currency is concretized in relation to the objects covered by the concept of "currency". To characterize the ratio of domestic and foreign currencies, the following concepts are used: "irreversible (non-convertible) currency", used within only one state; "Convertible (convertible) currency" which

- in the places where only two major international conferences of the 1940s were held - the actual international order of the world took shape not in two, but in four stages, on four international meetings: 1) in Bretton Woods (USA) in July 1944, where the foundations for regulating the post-war world economy were laid; 2) in Yalta(USSR) in February 1945, where the USSR, the USA and Great Britain agreed on common approaches to the future political reorganization of Europe; 3) in san francisco(USA) in April-June 1945, when the UN Charter was adopted; and finally 4) in Potsdam(Germany) in July 1945, when the three leading countries of the anti-Hitler coalition concretized their common policy towards the defeated Germany as the aggressor and steps to reorganize Europe.

Valentin Katasonov. "Secret Architects of the Bretton Woods System"

The main goal of the Soviet government was transformation of Eastern European countries into a protected security zone THE USSR. The United States paid attention to world economic issues, believing that it was they that would eliminate the causes of the emergence of aggressiveness from international relations. Washington believed that the war in Europe was due to the devastation of Germany after First world war and the impossibility of economic recovery in Europe in the interwar period due to trade wars and the unwillingness of countries to negotiate among themselves in the interests of stabilizing the world economy. Overcoming experience crisis 1929 - 1933 in the USA with government intervention inspired the idea that the stabilization of the world economy as a whole can also be achieved with the help of global coordinating mechanisms.

Three institutes were supposed to be the key ones - International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)... The IMF was supposed to ensure the stability of the international monetary system and provide financial assistance to countries in need. The IMF's biggest move was to restore a stable gold-dollar standard and fix hard exchange parities for the major world currencies. The IBRD was supposed to assist the development of lagging countries with loans and investments. The GATT had the task of promoting the liberalization of international trade through a phased reduction in customs tariffs and the abolition of foreign trade restrictions.

The conference for the creation of the IMF and the IBRD was held in the USA, in the city of Bretton Woods (New Hampshire), from July 1 to 23, 1944.The signing of the GATT was delayed, it took place in Geneva in October 1947. Later, the IBRD, along with the International Association development and some other institutions has become one of the main parts of the World Bank, although in the literature the expressions "World Bank" and "International Bank for Reconstruction and Development" are often used interchangeably. The IBRD and the IMF have become part of the UN system.

Since the 1940s, the GATT, together with the IMF and the IBRD, have formed a complex of world economic regulatory mechanisms, which is commonly called Bretton Woods system

Washington sought a compromise with Moscow, trying to involve it in the work of these bodies. USSR in 1944-1945 took part in the creation of the IMF, the IBRD, the European Economic Commission and a number of other organizations with an international economic profile. The United States was ready to agree to a significant presence of representatives of the USSR in the newly created bodies. According to the agreements reached at Bretton Woods, the Soviet Union ranked third after the United States and Great Britain in terms of the size of the vote quota when making decisions at the IMF.

But the Stalinist leadership understood that, even despite such a quota, Soviet representatives could neither impose their projects on the Bretton Woods institutions, nor even defend their positions on equal terms. The United States and other Western countries had a mechanical majority there, and there was no veto right. The possibility of penetration of foreign capital into the Soviet zone of influence in Eastern Europe, which could lead, due to the economic weakness of the USSR, first to the financial and economic, and then to the political loss of these territories.

Overestimating the revolutionary potential of post-war Europe, anticipating the "collapse of capitalism" in the near future and overestimating the economic interest of American capital in economic cooperation with the USSR, Soviet leaders believed that the West would show compliance in dialogue with Moscow. These calculations did not come true.

At the end of 1945, the Soviet government notified the US administration that it was not going to ratify the Bretton Woods agreements. In 1946-1947. Moscow has avoided joining the GATT. The USSR retained a free hand in the field of international economic relations, but found itself outside the framework of the world system of economic regulation.

1944 Bretton Woods Conference.

Following the results of World War II, the dollar became the main currency of the planet thanks to the monopoly right to exchange for gold.

72 years ago, on July 1, 1944, a fundamental change in the world economy began, recorded in agreements a few days later. However, the understanding of what happened came to ordinary people much later.

The world of finance has always been something of a mixture of balancing act with the magic of circus magicians. Most of its basic concepts are difficult to understand, not only by ear, but are completely arbitrary in nature. At the same time, finance is inextricably linked with money, and money has always been an instrument of power. It is not surprising that with their help, over the centuries, someone has constantly tried to take over the world.

For example, in July 1944, at the Mount Washington Hotel in the resort town of Bretton Woods (New Hampshire, USA), a group of gentlemen held a conference, the result of which was the world financial system of the same name, marking America's final victory over its long-standing geopolitical world rival - Great Britain. The winner went to the rest of the world - more precisely, almost the entire world, since the Soviet Union refused to join the new system. However, for the United States, too, it became only an intermediate step towards world financial hegemony, which America was able to achieve, but, apparently, it was not destined to stay on the Olympus.

Stages of a long journey

The transition from a subsistence economy to machine production, among other things, caused a large-scale increase in labor productivity, thereby forming a significant surplus of goods that local markets could no longer absorb. This pushed the countries to expand foreign trade. So, for example, in 1800-1860, the average annual volume of Russian exports increased from 60 million to 230 million rubles, and imports - from 40 million to 210 million. But the Russian Empire did not occupy the first place in international trade. The leading positions were held by Great Britain, France, Germany and the USA.

Such a large-scale exchange of goods could no longer fit within the narrow framework of a subsistence economy and required the widespread use of a common denominator in the form of money. This also gave rise to the problem of comparing their value with each other, which ultimately led to the recognition of gold as the universal equivalent of value. Gold played the role of money for centuries, it was available to all "big players", it was traditionally minted from it. But something else turned out to be more important. International trade realized the need not only for a mechanism for predicting the value of money, but also the importance of the stability of the ratio of their value to each other.

Using the pegging of national currencies to gold made it very easy to solve both problems at once. Your candy wrapper is "worth", let's say, one ounce (31.1 g) of gold, mine - two ounces, therefore, my candy wrapper is "equal" to two of yours. By 1867, this system was finally formed and was consolidated at the conference of industrialized countries in Paris. The leading world trading power of that time was Great Britain, therefore the stable exchange rate of 4.248 British pounds per ounce established by it became a kind of foundation of the world financial system. The rest of the currencies were also denominated in gold, but, yielding to the pound in terms of the share of world trade, eventually came to be expressed in terms of the British pound.

However, even then, the United States began its own game of overthrowing the British monetary hegemony. Within the framework of the Parisian monetary system, the United States achieved not only fixing the dollar to gold ($ 20.672 per ounce), but also fixed a rule according to which free trade in gold could be carried out only in two places: in London and New York. And nowhere else. This is how the gold mint parity was formed: 4.866 US dollars for the British pound. The exchange rates of other currencies had the right to fluctuate only within the framework of the cost of sending the amount of gold equivalent to one unit of foreign currency between the gold platforms of Great Britain and the United States. If they went beyond the boundaries of this corridor, the outflow of gold from the country or, conversely, its inflow began, which was determined by the negative or positive balance of the national balance of payments. Thus, the system quickly returned to equilibrium.

In this form, the "gold standard" existed until the outbreak of the First World War and, in general, ensured the effectiveness of the mechanism of international finance. Although even then Great Britain faced the problem of cyclical expansion-contraction of the money supply, fraught with depletion of the national gold reserve.

The Great War, as the First World War was then called, greatly shook the world economy, which could not but affect its financial system. London could no longer play the role of the world's reserve currency alone. The sheer scale of the domestic economy simply did not generate enough gold to support other countries' demand for British pounds, and Britain's own trade surplus remained negative. This meant the actual bankruptcy of the British lion, but the gentlemen from the City took a clever step and at the international economic conference in Genoa in 1922 proposed a new standard, called the gold exchange standard. Formally, it hardly differed from the Parisian "gold" one, unless the dollar was already officially recognized as an international measure of value on a par with gold. Then a small fraud began. The dollar kept gold backing, and the pound remained tightly pegged to the dollar, although it was no longer possible to exchange it for the corresponding gold equivalent.

Conference in Genoa in 1922

I will command the parade

However, the Genoese monetary system did not last long. Already in 1931, Great Britain was forced to officially cancel the convertibility of the pound into gold, and the Great Depression forced America to revise the gold content of its currency from $ 20.65 to $ 35 per ounce. The United States, which by that time had a positive trade balance, began an active expansion into Europe. To protect against it, Britain and other leading countries have introduced prohibitive customs tariffs and outright restrictions on imports. The volume of international trade and, accordingly, mutual settlements fell sharply. The exchange of currency for gold in all countries was discontinued, and by 1937 the world monetary system had ceased to exist.

Unfortunately, before her death, she managed to lead the US banking circles to the idea of ​​the possibility of seizing complete leadership in the world economy through the dollar acquiring the status of the only reserve system. And the Second World War, which ravaged Europe, came in handy here. If Hitler had not existed, he would have been invented in Washington.

So when on July 1, 1944, representatives of 44 countries, including the USSR, gathered at the Bretton Woods conference to resolve the issue of the financial structure of the post-war world, the United States proposed a system that was at the same time very similar to the one that "worked well before", and at the same time leading the world to the official recognition of America's leading role. In short, she looked simple and graceful. The US dollar is tightly pegged to gold (all the same $ 35 per troy ounce, or 0.88571 g per dollar). All other currencies fix rates against the dollar and can change them no more than plus or minus 0.75% of this value. Apart from the dollar and the pound, no world currency had the right to be exchanged for gold.

In fact, the dollar was becoming the world's only reserve currency. The British pound retained some privileged status, but by that time more than 70% of the world's gold reserves were in the United States (21,800 tons), the dollar was used in more than 60% of international trade settlements, and Washington promised huge loans in exchange for ratifying the Bretton Woods terms to restore the economies of countries after the war. So, the Soviet Union was offered to allocate 6 billion dollars, which was a huge amount, since the entire volume of Lend-Lease was estimated at 11 billion.However, Stalin correctly estimated the consequences and prudently refused the offer: the Soviet Union signed the Bretton Woods agreements, but they has not ratified.

The governments of other European countries actually signed a cabal and, with the ratification of the Bretton Woods conditions, could issue exactly as much of their own money as their central banks had the world reserve currency - American dollars. This provided the United States with the broadest opportunities to control the entire world economy. This also allowed them to establish the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and GATT - the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, later transformed into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The world began to live according to the Bretton Woods system (BWS).

Wall Street trading floor, USA, 1939

French demarche

For all the elegance of its design and great prospects for the United States, the BVS itself contained fundamental problems that had manifested themselves back in the days of the "gold standard". While the US economy was about a third of the world, and if we subtract the socialist countries, then 60% of the total Western economy, the share of dollars issued for lending to foreign financial systems was significantly less than the money supply circulating within the United States itself. The balance of payments was positive, thus allowing America to continue to get rich. But as the European economy recovered, the share of the United States began to decline, and American capital, taking advantage of the high cost of the dollar, began to actively flow abroad to buy cheap foreign assets. In addition, the profitability of foreign investments was three times higher than the profitability of the American market, which further stimulated the outflow of capital from the USA. America's trade balance gradually turned negative.

The severe restrictions on gold trading that existed in the BVS did not help, in fact, restricting its acquisition even by the central banks of other states, and depriving any private investors altogether of such an opportunity. In addition, the emerging transnational corporations used their foreign capital for an active exchange game, including against the dollar. The sharpening imbalance between the theoretical model of the BVS and the actual state of affairs in the world economy led not only to the emergence of a black market for gold, but also brought its price there to more than $ 60 per troy ounce, that is, twice as high as the official one.

It is clear that such a discrepancy could not last long. It is believed that the BVS was broken by French President General de Gaulle, who collected the "ship of dollars" and presented it to the United States for immediate exchange for gold. This really took place. At a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, de Gaulle announced that France had accumulated $ 1.5 billion in paper dollars, which it intended to exchange for the yellow metal at the official rate of $ 35 an ounce. According to the rules, the United States had to transfer more than 1,300 tons of gold to the French. Considering that by this time no one knew the exact size of the US gold reserve, but there were persistent rumors about its reduction to 9 thousand tons, and the cost of the entire mass of printed dollars clearly exceeded the equivalent of even the official number of 21 thousand tons, America would agree to such an exchange I could not. Nevertheless, France, through tough pressure (for example, the country withdrew from the NATO military organization) managed to overcome the resistance of Washington and in two years, together with Germany, thus took out more than 3 thousand tons of gold from the United States.

This is where the story of the Bretton Woods financial system ended, since after such an embarrassment, the United States, under various pretexts, refused to exchange green papers for real gold. On August 15, 1971, the next President of the United States, Richard Nixon, formally canceled the gold backing of the dollar.

Over the 27 years of its existence, BVS has done the main thing - it has raised the American dollar to the top of world finance and has firmly associated it with the concept of independent value. That is, the value of this piece of paper was given only by what is written on it - "dollar" - and not the amount of gold for which it could be exchanged. The rejection of gold backing lifted the last restrictions on the issue of money from the United States. Now the FRS could officially decide at its meeting how many dollars the world needs, without worrying about any kind of security. And the oil crisis that broke out in 1973 made it possible to agree with the monarchies of the Middle East on transferring the entire oil trade only to US dollars. All courses became floating, and the new system was called Jamaican and secured by intergovernmental agreements of 1976-1978.

Formally, the Jamaican system exists to this day, but in fact we can see the beginning of its end. Because it contains even more systemic contradictions than there was in Bretton Woods, but there is no more gold in it, which can at least be felt and counted.