Word: million
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...deals, under attack at La Muette, had met still graver difficulties in London. A near-panic on London's exchange had sent government bonds plummeting to new lows for the year; in a single week the value of gilt-edged consols (government bonds) dropped by close to ?250 million. Said the London Economist: "The truth is that the crisis which the British did not expect until 1952-and hoped to be prepared for by then-is already upon them...
...market and the reluctance of foreign traders to buy British as long as rumors persisted that Britain would devalue the pound, had cut deeply into Britain's dollar and gold reserves. The danger point, many Britons had long thought, would be reached if the reserves fell below ?500 million. Last week they stood at closer to ?400 million. To Cripps's many critics it looked as if the crisis was the final proof that his policies should be scrapped. They renewed their demands that Britain abandon bilateral deals and compete freely in a world market...
...first year of Marshall Plan grants the U.S. had tried to spice its aid with a small inducement to encourage intra-European trade. Some $800 million of the U.S. grants were conditional. To get them, the receiving country had to surrender an equal amount of its own currency to a third nation. Thus Britain, in order to receive ECA dollars, made sterling available to France, enabling France to buy British machinery. Such secondary grants were known as drawing rights...
Britain would give France ?40 million of drawing rights to cover the expected French deficit in trade with Britain. France by efficient production or persuasive salesmanship or by cutting purchases from Britain, might succeed in reducing its expected deficit from ?40 million to ?25 million. Under the old plan this reduction would give France no advantage within the OEEC system. Under the Petsche plan, however, France could transfer 40% of its British drawing rights to another OEEC country, for instance, Belgium. That way, the Belgians would wind up with part of the U.S. dollars originally allocated to Britain. In other...
Cripps had agreed to transferability, although the amount of drawing rights that could be transferred was cut from 40% to 25%. Since this would cost Britain only $50 million a year at most, Cripps had won a victory in terms of cash. ECA and the Belgians were content in having established the principle that ECA was working toward multilateral trade, not bilateral budgeting and bartering...