In the Name of Social Stability: The European Payments Union

In October 1949, the Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin recalled the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreements of July 1944. From a luxurious hotel in the secluded forests of New Hampshire, the world had aimed to stabilise the international economic system by creating a new rules-based global monetary order. At the time, the financial experts of continental Europe had little to say in bringing about this new order, which was predominantly of Anglo-American design. In a parallel effort to the Anglo-American financial experts, most notably John Maynard Keynes and Harry D. White, Europe’s leaders envisioned the post-war monetary system differently. They deliberated ‘regional monetary groups’ that should tie in with a ‘skeleton world council’ in the form of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).