| 1932-1941 |
| Reflation and competitive devaluation stimulate production and exports with the result
that Japan recovers rapidly form the world slump of the 1930s and is able to devote
increasing resources to rearmament. |
| p 586 |
|
| 1935 - c.1970 |
| The general level of prices rises every year but at a moderate rate. |
| p 395-396 |
|
| 1939-1945 |
| Keynesian policies are successfully put to the test as the British government borrows
larger sums than ever before at lower interest rates than in the First World War and other
wars. From being a large creditor to, mainly poorer, Commonwealth countries Britain
becomes a large debtor. |
| p 389-391,605 |
| The US national debt, which was only $16 billion in 1930, reaches a peak of $269
billion in 1946 but this borrowing is also made at very low interest rates. Whereas the
economies of most European countries are devasted the US gross national product rises
substantially. |
| p 515-516 |
| Revenue raised from taxation (48% of government expenditure) and the resources of the
occupied countries, together with a compulsory price freeze, enable the German authorities
to suppress inflation until near the war's end. |
| p 575 |
| In Japan the financial, administrative and industrial powers of the Zaibatsu are
strengthened as they form the economic heart of the military machine. |
| p 587 |
|
| 1944-1971 |
| The agreement, reached at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA, envisages a system of
convertible currencies, fixed exchange rates, and free trade. New financial institutions
are to be established; the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development. Plans for an International Trade Organization fail as they
are not ratified by the US Congress but they pave the way for the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT). |
| p 21,444-445,516 |
|
| 1944-1960 |
| Following the Liberation in August 1944 economic controls are lifted step-by-step,
releasing previously suppressed inflation. |
| p 563-564 |
|
| 1944-1946 |
| Hungary's monetary system destroys itself as note issues increase from 12,000 million
until at its maximum it comes to a figure containing 27 digits. By July 1946 the 1931 gold
pengo is worth 130 trillion paper pengos. |
| p 19,397 |
|
| 1945-1955 |
| Between 1945 and 1948 145 banks are registered followed by a similar number in the
next 4 years. However their growth is unregulated and owing to inexperience, incompetence,
nepotism and corruption by 1955 all but 3 indigenous banks have failed. |
| p 611,612 |
|
| 1945-1948 |
| Owing to the devastation of the war Germany experiences hyperinflation for the second
time in a generation. In the official markets ration cards and permits are more important
than currency while on the black market cigarettes, soap, tinned beef and chocolate serve
as currency. |
| p 443,576 |
|
| 1945-1948 |
| The American occupying forces pass laws to break up the Zaibatsu by separating their
banking activities from their industrial bases. They also close down a number of the
special banks, such as the Yokohama Specie Bank, and insist on the separation of commercial
and investment banking. |
| p 588 |
|
| 1945 |
| At the same time a rigid separation between deposit and investment banks is enforced. |
| p 563-564 |
|
| 1946 |
| This act is evidence of the power of Keynesian philosophy. |
| p 531 |
|
| 1947 |
| General George Marshall proposes a huge programme to assist reconstruction in war-torn
Europe. The programme goes ahead the following year. West Germany is later included among
the recipients. |
| p 393,516,519,576 |
|
| 1947 |
| The International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, both of which are established as a result of the Bretton Woods agreement
start functioning and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which also inspired by
the agreement, holds its first meeting. |
| p 517-518 |
|
| 1948 |
| Its initial purpose is to distribute Marshal aid effectively. It also broadens the
existing bilateral payments systems into wider multilateral clearings. |
| p 444 |
|
| 1948 |
| Each province has its own central bank. Their activities are coordinated by the Bank
Deutscher Lä in Frankfurt. |
| p 576 |
|
| 1948 |
| Simultaneously the freeze on prices and wages and most of the rationing system are
abolished. These reforms lay the foundations for the West German economic miracle. |
| p 443,576-577 |
|
| 1948 |
| After independence in 1947 the banking system is reorganised to fit its Indian
environment. |
| p 624 |
|
| 1948 |
| Its goal is to provide medium- and long-term finance to industrialists unable to get
such funds from normal banking services. |
| p 624 |
|
| 1949 |
| Britain devalues the pound from $4.30 to $2.80 i.e. by about 30% against the dollar.
This sparks off a major international realignment of exchange rates in which most other
countries also devalue their currencies against the dollar. Britain's action reduces the
value of sterling assets held by other Commonwealth countries and stimulates moves towards
financial and political independence in the remaining colonies. |
| p 393,598,606 |
|
| 1949 |
| Even after the Second World War the United African Company found it necessary to trade
in manillas (currency worn as ornament) but, after a long struggle, they are officially
withdrawn in 1949. |
| p 46,600 |
|
| 1949 |
| The US abandons the idea of exacting war reparations and instead supplies aid to
Japan, like that given to Europe under the Marshall plan. At the same time rationing is
abolished, runaway inflation brought under control, the budget balanced, and a single
exchange rate for the yen, at 360 to the dollar, established. |
| p 519,588 |
|
| 1950-1970 |
| Average annual growth in the 1950s is 9.2%, comfortably exceeding an ambitious plan
for doubling the average income in a decade. In the 1960s growth is even higher, averaging
10.7% annually. |
| p 589 |
|
| 1950-1958 |
| This is set up by the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. The 15 members
can mutually offset deficits and surpluses up to the limits of their quotas which are set
according to their share of world trade. By 1958 most European currencies are sufficiently
convertible for the payments union to be terminated. |
| p 445 |
|
| 1950-1953 |
| The Japanese economy is boosted as the country benefits from being the main Asiatic
base for supplies to the United Nations forces in Korea. |
| p 588 |
|
| 1950 |
| This is the first special bank to be created in Japan after the Second World War. In
1952 it becomes the Export-Import Bank. |
| p 588 |
|
| 1950 |
| This is the first step towards the creation of the European Economic Community. |
| p 445 |
|
| 1951 |
| During the era of the gold standard the Bank of England could successfully control the
monetary system by varying bank rate. However, when the policy is used again in the 1950s
it is much less successful. |
| p 394,399 |
|
| 1951 |
| Whereas the independent Commonwealth countries had managed to reduce their sterling
balances those of the colonies are still increasing with the result that the British
economy is benefiting at the expense of poorer countries. |
| p 606 |
|
| 1951 |
| The provisions of the 1927 Act are repealed but by this time the custom is already on
its last legs and by the end of the 1960s potlatches have virtually died out. |
| p 12 |
|
| 1951 |
| This is another of the special banks for granting long term loans for industrial or
regional development. |
| p 588 |
|
| 1952-1967 |
| The authorities encourage mergers and amalgamation among smaller banks to strengthen
the banking system. The number of reporting banks declines from 517 in 1952 to
reach its low point of 90 in 1967. |
| p 624 |
|
| 1952 |
| Following the peace treaty in 1952 American-type anti-trust laws are repealed and the
Zaibatsu, complete with their core banks, are rapidly reconstituted. |
| p 589 |
|
| 1952 |
| This divides the Federal Republic into three zones within each of which branching is
allowed to spread. |
| p 576 |
|
| 1952 |
| At the time of joining Japan is running chronic trade deficits. The assistance it gets
from the Fund and the Bank in the following years help it to achieve its economic miracle.
|
| p 519 |
|
| 1953 |
|
|
| 1954 |
| The colonial government of the Gold Coast (Ghana) issues its first tranche of 90-day
Treasury Bills. |
| p 619 |
|
| 1955 |
| Its few remaining central banking functions are taken over by the Reserve Bank leaving
the State Bank to concentrate on its commercial business but with its duty to promote an
active branching policy re-emphasized. |
| p 624 |
|
| 1956 |
| The restrictions of the 1952 Act are abolished and nationwide branching is allowed in
West Germany. East Germany is included after July 1990. |
| p 576 |
|
| 1956 |
| This triggers off the development of modern monetarism. |
| p 429 |
|
| 1956 |
| Holding companies doing some limited banking are allowed to set up shop elsewhere.
This act is used as a way of avoiding legal restrictions on branch banking. |
| p 539 |
|
| 1957 |
| The original six members are Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Italy.
The treaty also sets up the European Investment Bank to foster regionally-balanced growth
by long term loans for infrastructural projects. |
| p 445 |
|
| 1957 |
| The new central bank for the Federal Republic (West Germany) has its headquarters in
Frankfurt. The 11 Länder or provinces retain their own subsidiary central banks, each
with its own branch system. |
| p 576 |
|
| 1958 |
| The committee, chaired by Jaques Rueff, was established because of France's continuing
inflation problem. It recommends reform of the currency. |
| p 564 |
|
| 1959 |
| Owing to doubts about the effectiveness of bank rate policy the British government set
up a committee of enquiry in 1957 which reports 2 years later. No official report in
Britain (nor possibly any other country) has shown such scepticism about the idea of
trying to control the economy by controlling the money supply, representing the zenith of
Keynesianism and the nadir of Monetarism. |
| p 399-402 |
|
| 1959 |
| Nigeria's Central Bank is created in advance of the country's independence in 1960. |
| p 608-609 |
|
| |
