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1992-09-03
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System under which a country's currency is
exchangeable for a fixed weight of gold on
demand at the central bank. It was almost
universally applied 1870-1914, but by 1937 no
single country was on the full gold standard.
Britain abandoned the gold standard 1931; the
USA abandoned it 1971. Holdings of gold are
still retained because it is an
internationally recognized commodity, which
cannot be legislated upon or manipulated by
interested countries. The gold standard broke
down in World War I, and attempted revivals
were undermined by the Great Depression.
After World War II the par values of the
currency units of the International Monetary
Fund (which includes nearly all members of
the United Nations not in the Soviet bloc)
were fixed in terms of gold and the US and
East European dollar, but by 1976 floating
exchange rates (already unofficially
operating from 1971) were legalized.