Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART 1 THE BACKGROUND
- PART 2 THE COURSE OF POLICY: GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION 1932–1936
- PART 3 NON-CONFORMISTS OF LEFT AND RIGHT
- 7 Plans and planners
- 8 Devaluation
- Epilogue: The politics of rearmament 1936–1939
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART 1 THE BACKGROUND
- PART 2 THE COURSE OF POLICY: GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION 1932–1936
- PART 3 NON-CONFORMISTS OF LEFT AND RIGHT
- 7 Plans and planners
- 8 Devaluation
- Epilogue: The politics of rearmament 1936–1939
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
C'était pas assez de m'avoir ruiné par la Stabilisation Poincaré … c'est toujours sur le petit rentier qu'on s'en prend c'est toujours lui qui paie les pots cassés … nous voilà presque ruiner, je dis ruiner Monsieur le Ministre
(Letter from a 76-year-old rentier to Bonnet, 21 March 1933)La religion du franc n'est guère autre chose que la religion de la France
(Le Matin, 19 April 1935)Devaluer, c'est cambrioler la Banque de France. Devaluer, c'est cambrioler les français … c'est faire le jeu des requins de la finance et de la Bourse … Il n'y a pas de question du franc, il y a une question de France
(P. Gaxotte, Je suis partout, 1 May 1935)‘France has abandoned principle and consistency alike, but she has always refused sacrifices which were avoidable and has obeyed in the end the teachings of experience. We in England have not submitted either to the warnings of theory or to the pressures of facts, obstinately obedient to convention.’ This remark, written by Keynes in 1928, describing the respective monetary policies of France and England in the 1920s, could also be applied to the 1930s – with the roles reversed. The attempt of French governments to hang on to the parity of the franc at all costs has become a classic example of wrongheadedness in the conduct of economic policy. But at the time devaluation was denounced with the most extraordinary passion.
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- The Politics of Depression in France 1932–1936 , pp. 167 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985