BRIEF ORIGINS

The World Bank, in the form of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), was founded at an international conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. Its purpose was to move toward the creation of a framework for world economic governance. The conference had been called, largely at the initiative of the United States, to work out a system for global economic stabilization following the depression of the 1930s and for reconstruction after the Second World War. Forty-four governments, including the USSR, attended.

The architects of the new system were, principally, Harry Dexter White, U.S. Treasury Secretary Morgenthau's chief economist, and legendary British economist John Maynard Keynes. At Bretton Woods, White took charge of the proposals for monetary stabilization. An outstanding intellect who authored the proposals that he hoped would help save the world from more wars, he was later brought before Senator McCarthy's Unamerican Activities Committee. Keynes, the leader of the UK delegation, had separately come up with his own ideas of a central bank for the world. However, he went along with the American plan, and he assumed responsibility, with reluctance, for running the discussions on the Bank.

The initial focus at Bretton Woods was on the stabilization of the world economy, and the conference proposed the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the center of the system. The World Bank, that is, the IBRD, was at the time the secondary concern and subject to less scrutiny.