1931

Britain leaves gold

Six years after the 1925 return, sterling leaves the gold parity.

Bank of England five-pound note, 1931.
Bank of England five-pound note, 1931.Public domain.

In 1931 Britain left gold. The 1925 restoration had reused the pre-war parity. It had not rebuilt the pre-1914 order. The exit is the other half of that interwar pair.

Other interwar “gold standards” were pegs, exchange controls, and official gold — a familiar name on a different architecture. This is not 1797, and it is not the American gold recall of 1933.

Classical gold standard’s wartime end