1920

Pre-war gold order still absent

In 1920 the war is over. The pre-1914 gold machine has not returned. Britain’s parity restoration is 1925.

Twenty-dollar Federal Reserve note, series of 1914. Not a statute of the year of this page.Public domain.

After 1918 the old arrangement — several centres, private convertibility, gold moving at the points — did not come back. It is still absent.

Britain restores a pre-war sterling parity in 1925. That is not this year, and it is not the pre-1914 system. Genoa’s gold-exchange sketch is 1922.