Bretton Woods
Full Name
Bretton Woods System of Monetary Management
Start Date
7/1/1944
Primary Date
7/1/1944
End Date
7/22/1944
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton-Woods Agreement.
- Before World War II, the United states had hte largest gold reserves in the world
- This combined with winning WWII, let the US reconstruct the global monetary system around the dollar
Bretton Woods Outcomes
- Tied the currencies of almost all countries to the US Dollar
- Currencies were tied at a fixed exchange rate
- Tied the value of the US dollar to $35 per ounce of gold
- Resulted in the US Dollar becoming the world's primary reserve currency
- Forced other countries to use and store US dollars for international trade or exchange with the US government for gold