The Gold Standard Illusion: France, the Bank of France, and the International Gold Standard, 1914-1939

Did French gold policy cause the Great Depression? The Gold Standard Illusion draws on newly-available French records to test the gold standard interpretation of the Great Depression. It provides a history of French economic understanding, policy-making, and politics with regard to gold, monetary policy, and the key role of financial problems in political instability from 1914 to 1939.