Word: exportations
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...import from Britain) to buy francs on the open market, use them to get sterling credit at the official rate through a French agent-in effect, getting a pound for about $3. The British feared that dollars would be diverted from Britain to France, that Britain's booming export trade would bring in fewer dollars than Cripps had planned on. Moreover, with the cheaper francs, French exporters would be able to undersell British rivals...
Except for the assurance that France would try to stop cheapening of the pound, the French went ahead with the" Mayer plan. They pegged the "official franc" at about 214 to the dollar for use in the export-import trade, planned to set up a free market for trading in dollars...
Apart from its bad timing, the new setup made some sense. Its purpose was to 1) prevent the Marshall Plan nations from spending U.S. dollars on nonessential or luxury items; 2) keep tabs on everything going to the Soviet Union or its satellites. But the export wall was full of loopholes. It would still be possible, as in war years, to ship to a Latin American middleman, who could transship to one of the affected countries...
...Exporters, as expected, were dead set against the controls. They claimed that 1) most European nations already had strict controls to prevent their dollars from being squandered, 2) the red tape would slow up European recovery by delaying the shipment of needed goods. But the Administration hinted that it may soon put still other nations under export license...
Franc Down? Paris reported rumors that the French franc, pegged at 119 to $1, would soon be devalued to somewhere near its real worth (black market price: 350 to $1). The uncertainty nipped French exports; foreign buyers were all holding off for the lower prices devaluation would bring. Charles Gruere, president of the National Federation of French Exporters, called for the immediate establishment of a "free" export franc similar to the export lira in Italy (TIME, Dec. 8). France was reported ready to establish such a franc. Estimated value...