Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Camille Gutt, Finance and Politics (1919–40)
- 2 Belgian War Financial Diplomacy: Negotiating the Belgian Contribution to the War Effort
- 3 Financial Diplomacy in London During the Second World War: Towards a New Monetary Order?
- 4 Extending the Benelux Agreements: Regional Integration as an Alternative to the Anglo-American Plans
- 5 The Birth of a Monetary System: Camille Gutt and Bretton Woods (1943–4)
- 6 Camille Gutt, First Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (1946–51)
- Conclusion
- Glossary of Names
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Conclusion
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Camille Gutt, Finance and Politics (1919–40)
- 2 Belgian War Financial Diplomacy: Negotiating the Belgian Contribution to the War Effort
- 3 Financial Diplomacy in London During the Second World War: Towards a New Monetary Order?
- 4 Extending the Benelux Agreements: Regional Integration as an Alternative to the Anglo-American Plans
- 5 The Birth of a Monetary System: Camille Gutt and Bretton Woods (1943–4)
- 6 Camille Gutt, First Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (1946–51)
- Conclusion
- Glossary of Names
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Postwar international finance was the result of the interactions between statesmen and experts, each having their own particular views and interests at stake. These views and interests may not be fully understood unless put in the context of past experiences not only individual but also collective. Gutt played a role as both a witness and an actor in this process. However, his role has not attracted significant attention of historians so far. This book suggests that Gutt's career has to be approached in the wider perspective of the emergence of an international financial diplomacy whose practices proved enduring in the context of the Second World War.
The first question that was raised in this book concerns the involvement of private businessmen in public policy, and their role in shaping financial policy, either in its domestic or its international dimensions. The case of Gutt gives an interesting insight into such questions. It showed that the involvement of big business interests in Belgian financial policy came to an end neither with the Great Depression nor the Second World War. Such an involvement took different forms. From the end of the First World War until the middle of the 1930s, Belgium presented the case of an almost complete takeover of Belgian domestic and external financial policy by big business. The second period started with the Great Depression and ended with the downfall of the ‘government of bankers’ in 1935.
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- Information
- Camille Gutt and Postwar International Finance , pp. 133 - 136Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014