Keynes toward
the International Monetary System
–
Internationalism, the British Empire Interests and Pragmatism
Toshiaki
Hirai
(Sophia
University)
(Abstract)
In July 1940 the Chancellor of
the Exchequer’s Consultative Council was set up “to help and advise
the Chancellor on special problems arising from war conditions”. Keynes
accepted membership of the Council, thereby becoming deeply involved in
Treasury matters. Thus he was to find himself engaged in a range of important
assignments, as we will see shortly.
This paper
mainly explores Keynes’s activities vis -à-vis the new international system,
while taking into consideration the other international activities he attended
to at the same time, such as the Commodity problem, the Relief and
Reconstruction problem, and Financial Negotiation with the US.
The paper
examines the “Keynes Plan” and the
“White Plan” to begin with. We will then follow how the two plans were dealt
with through the negotiations between the US and the UK. Finally we will
evaluate Keynes’s work from the perspective of the three aspects indicated
above in the subtitle. The main focus is on the features of Keynes’s original
scheme and Keynes as a negotiator, which piece together the picture of his
worldview .
***
Keynes’s feature examined here is summarized as
follows.
How should we
evaluate the Anglo-American Draft Statement (or the final agreement concluded
at the Savannah Conference in 1946)? The reality belied Keynes’s declared admiration,
which he came to reach through the following long and painful negotiations.
Around April
1943 Keynes agreed that the White Plan should be a starter, so he prepared a
memorandum in June based on it, putting his International Clearing Plan on the
shelf. In the meeting in Washington in October Keynes made a great effort for
unitas monetization but in vain. Furthermore, in December 1943 he expressed the
view that there should be no need to adhere to the monetization; the need was,
rather, to think about the transitional period (it was in April 1944 that the
UK gave up the idea of monetisation ). Keynes came to appreciate the IMF system
not only as a concrete example of international agreement (February 1944), but
also as “the dog of mixed origin” (May).
Thus Keynes
failed to have the essential elements of the ICU Plan incorporated into the
White Plan. Keynes’s strategy dramatically shifted to how the UK could get
financial assistance from the US in the transitional period.
(Table of Contents) 7200 wds
I. International
Monetary System
1. Basic Setting
2. The International Clearing Union (the Keynes Plan)
2-1. Process up until the 28 August 1942 Plan
2-2. Principal Features of the Keynes Plan (28 August
1942)
3. International
Stabilization Fund (the White Plan)
4. The Two Plans Compared
4-1. August 1942- April 1943: nuanced relationship
between the UK and the US
4-2. The ICU Plan
4-3. The Two Plans Reviewed
5. The Process of Integration between the Two Plans
5-1. Monetization of Unitas
5-2. The Final Phase of the Negotiations
II. Keynes’s
Stance Evaluated
