Foreword
In the aftermath of World War II and the Great Depression, the international economy was in a state of confusion. Many nations had been forced to abandon the gold standard (which defined the value of each currency), and the relationship between money and goods — and the value of one nation’s currency to another’s — was no longer clear.In response, representatives at the international conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944 conceived of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Its purpose was to foster trade and economic growth by stabilizing the exchange of currencies.The Fund started with a membership of…
