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| Title |
Statement by Lord Keynes (1944)
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| Document type |
Text
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| Source |
United Nations Information Organisation - Press Divison. London: UNIO-Press Division, [s.d.], pp. 60-61.
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| Keywords |
Bretton Woods agreement, IMF, international monetary system, United Nations, World Bank
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| Copyright |
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| Caption |
In 1944, at the close of the Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) monetary conference, John Maynard Keynes, renowned international economist and financial adviser to the British Treasury, gives a speech in which he emphasises the urgent need to set up an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
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| Location in the digital library |
HISTORICAL EVENTS >> 1945–1949 The pioneering phase >> The beginning of the Cold War >> The United States
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| Document extract |
Statement by Lord Keynes on the proposed Bank for Reconstruction and Development
"I will not say that the establishment of the Bank for reconstruction and development is more important than the Monetary Fund but perhaps it is more urgent. U.N.R.R.A. will provide funds necessary for relief and rehabilitation in the days immediately following liberation but it will not provide finance for more permanent reconstruction and the restoration of industry and agriculture. To fill this gap is one of the main purposes of the Bank which we have been working at in Bretton Woods. Its other main purpose is the development of the less-developed areas of the world in the general interests of the standard of life, of conditions of labour, and the expanse of trade everywhere. The capital which we are aiming at and which we hope eventually to attain is £2,500 million. I can say with confidence that the initial capital of the Bank will not fall short of two thousand million pounds. This is a vast amount in terms of international lending and should be adequate for all proper requirements for some time to come. The Bank will have some novel principles. In the early days after the war only a few countries and chiefly the United States will have the necessary surplus resources available to invest overseas. How then can the rest of us help and how can the Bank become a genuinely Int (...) Read more in ENA |
| See also |
The United States
Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (22 July 1944)
The tunnel
The European Monetary System
Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (22 July 1944)
The Bretton Woods Agreement (20 July 1944)
Meeting of the Council of Economy and Finance Ministers (Brussels, 18 February 1974)
Cartoon by Behrendt on United Nations intervention in Bosnia (1992)
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