Word: francs
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...December that devalued the dollar and established a new set of exchange rates for major currencies was delicately balanced. It stipulated not only what the dollar was worth in terms of other currencies, but how many German marks a Dutch guilder would buy, how many Japanese yen a French franc would equal, and so on. It was inevitable that sooner or later doubts about the value of at least one of these currencies would put the system to a severe test. The test came last week, when an explosion of currency speculation left the whole network of rates badly shaken...
...About two weeks after each deposit-it takes approximately that long for an overseas check to clear-the woman appeared and withdrew the money in Swiss currency. She carried it off in sizable bundles in an airline flight bag, since the largest denomination of Swiss currency, a 1,000-franc note, is equivalent to only $258. The account now is virtually empty; apparently only the original 1,000 francs is still there...
...price of gold that had long been pressed by Charles de Gaulle. The large French gold reserves ($3.5 billion worth at latest count) thus increased in value by 8.6% though the gains are largely theoretical for the time being, since the U.S. has stopped trading in gold. France also kept its currently prosperous trading position. The franc was not required to revalue upward at all (though it rose against the dollar by the 8.6% amount of Washington's devaluation). More important, the West German mark was set at a value 5% higher than the franc, giving French exports...
...West Germans, however, wound up with an important short-term advantage. After the mark had started floating last May, it rose as much as 12% above the franc, which was purposely held fairly steady by Paris. Thus the narrower gap created by the new rates actually puts West German exporters in a better position vis-è-vis their French competitors than they have enjoyed in recent months...
...different foreign currencies go up against the dollar, and against each other. Canada, which expects to come out of the reshuffle with a dollar priced slightly below the U.S. dollar, will be helped far more by removal of the U.S. surcharge than it will be hurt by American devaluation. France will have to surrender some of the export advantage it has gained over Germany, because the realignment will close part of the gap that yawned between the franc and the mark during the months of currency fluctuation. For both countries, the franc-mark relationship is vastly more important than...