Forgotten Foundations of Bretton Woods

Eric Helleiner

Description

"Forgotten Foundations is classic interdisciplinary history, drawing on literatures from political science and economics as well as primary sources.... Helleiner has made an important contribution that will permanently re-frame how scholars conceptualize Bretton Woods." Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryEric Helleiner's new book provides a powerful corrective to conventional accounts of the negotiations at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. These negotiations resulted in the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bankthe key international financial institutions of the postwar global economic order. Critics of Bretton Woods have argued that its architects devoted little attention to international development issues or the concerns of poorer countries. On the basis of extensive historical research and access to new archival sources, Helleiner challenges these assumptions, providing a major reinterpretation that will interest all those concerned with the politics and history of the global economy, North-South relations, and international development.The Bretton Woods architectswho included many officials and analysts from poorer regions of the worlddiscussed innovative proposals that anticipated more contemporary debates about how to reconcile the existing liberal global economic order with the development aspirations of emerging powers such as India, China, and Brazil. Alongside the much-studied Anglo-American relationship was an overlooked but pioneering North-South dialogue. Helleiner's unconventional history brings to light not only these forgotten foundations of the Bretton Woods system but also their subsequent neglect after World War II.

Sujets

• International economics
• Monetary economics
• International relations
• Political economy

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 17 avril 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801470615
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS OF BRETTON WOODS

FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS OFBRETTON WOODS InternationalDevelopment and the Making of the Postwar Order

EricHelleiner

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESSNODNOLDNAHACAIT

Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,orparts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2014 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Helleiner, Eric, 1963– , author.  Forgotten foundations of Bretton Woods : international development and the making of the postwar order / Eric Helleiner.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801452758 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (1944 : Bretton Woods, N.H.) 2. International finance—History—20th century. 3. Economic development—History—20th century. I. Title.  HG3881.H4177 2014  338.9109'045—dc23 2013045238

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Preface ListofAbbreviations

InternationalDevelopmentandtheNorthSouthDialogue of Bretton Woods 1.  Good Neighbors Prepare the Ground 2.  The First Draft: The InterAmerican Bank 3.  A New Approach to Money Doctoring: Cuba 4.  Building Foundations: US Postwar Planning 5.  Strengthening the Foundations: Paraguay 6.  Latin American Backing for Bretton Woods 7.  Development Aspirations in East Asia 8.  Lukewarm and Inconsistent Britain 9.  Enthusiasm from Eastern Europe and India TheAftermathandtheForgetting

References Index

vii ix

1

29

52

80

99

133

156

184

208

234

258

279 295

Preface

Thisbookoffersanunconventionalinterpretationofthebirthofthepostwar international economic order. At least, it was unconventional to me until I came upon some archival material well over a decade ago that generated the research path that led me to write this book. Like many others, I had long assumed that international development goals and NorthSouth relations played little role in the creation of the Bretton Woods system. After many years of digging through archives and other sources, I have become convinced that they were much more important to the origins of that system than is usually acknowledged. These are forgotten foundations of Bretton Woods and they are not just of historical interest. They deserve to be remembered at a time that there is much discussion about how to reconcile the existing liberal international economic order with the development aspirations of emerging Southern powers. The Bretton Woods architects addressed this issue squarely and creatively “at the creation,” and they included representatives from many of the key emerging economic powers of today such as Brazil, China, India, and Mexico. Manypeoplehavehelpedmeinthisproject.Iamverygratefultovarious archivists working in the institutions mentioned in the reference list who shared their wisdom and provided invaluable assistance. I have also been lucky to work with a remarkable group of students who provided valuable research assistance and insights: Asim Ali, Geoff Cameron, Taarini Chopra, Judit Fabian, Athana sia Limperatos, Masaya LlavanerasBlanco, Troy Lundblad, Ian Muller, Ste fano Pagliari, Antulio Rosales, Anastasia Ufimtseva, Verónica Rubio Vega, and J. Ricardo Tranjan. Ricardo deserves special recognition for his valiant efforts on a trip to locate Paraguayan archival material that appears to have been lost to the historical record. Thanks, too, to staff at the Banco Central del Paraguay for their assistance with his efforts. Thankstomanyotherswhoprovidedhelpfulcommentary,reactions,sources, and advice on various aspects of the argument. They include Manmohan Aggar wal, Jacquie Best, James Boughton, Gerry Boychuk, Benedicte Bull, Tom Cal laghy, Greg Chin, Andy Cooper, Bob Cox, Roy Culpepper, Ed Dosman, Alan Dye, Michael Edelstein, Ted Fertik, Ed Friedman, Kevin Gallagher, Patti Goff, Mui Pong Goh, Derek Hall, Jason Hecht, Gerry Helleiner, Kathy Hochstetler, Harold James, Miles Kahler, Robert Keohane, Jonathan Kirshner, John Kleeberg, Akinoba Kuroda, Kathryn Lavelle, Kari Levitt, Brad Lewis, Odette Lineau, Charles Lipson,

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viiiPREFACE

Perry Mehrling, Bessma Momani, James Morrison, Ananya MukherjeeReed, Craig Murphy, John Odell, Paul Poast, Tony Porter, Laura Randall, Eric Raunch way, Emily Rosenberg, John Sanbrailo, Kurt Schuler, James Scott, Irvine Stone, Andrew Thompson, Gail Triner, Ryan Touhey, Richard von Glahn, Hongying Wang, David Weiman, Rorden Wilkinson, Ngaire Woods, as well as many other participants in seminars where I presented aspects of this work at Columbia Uni versity, Cornell University, Harvard University, the History of Economics Society, McMaster University, Oxford University, Princeton University, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre, Sciences Po, the University of Chicago (the PIPES seminar), the University of Ottawa, the University of Southern California, the University of Tokyo, the University of Warwick, and the University of Waterloo. To any people I have overlooked, please accept both my apologies and my thanks. IamalsoparticularlygratefultoRogerHaydonforallhisinsightsandcheer ful encouragement as well as to two anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their very helpful comments and suggestions. Gavin Lewis and Susan Specter also provided extremely useful editorial advice. Many thanks, too, to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Trudeau Foundation for helping to fund the research underlying this book. And finally this book is dedicated to the three people who have made the most important contributions to it: Jennifer, Zoë, and Nels. Jen nifer has listened and reacted to my ideas about this history (and much else) for a very long time; Zoë and Nels have spent almost their whole lives with this proj ect and sometimes wondered why someone could possibly be so interested in a faraway forest called Bretton Woods. Thanks to each of them for their wonderful patience, intelligence, humor, support, and love of life, which have been constant sources of inspiration.

Abbreviations

BIS CFF CFR ECLA FBI FRBNY GATT IAB IADB IBRD ICU IDA IFEAC IMF ISI ITO KMT NIEO OPEC RBI RFC RIIA SUNFED TVA UNCTAD

Bank for International Settlements Compensatory Financing Facility Council on Foreign Relations Economic Commission for Latin America Federation of British Industries Federal Reserve Bank of New York General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade InterAmerican Bank InterAmerican Development Bank International Bank for Reconstruction and Development International Clearing Union International Development Association InterAmerican Financial and Economic Advisory Committee International Monetary Fund importsubstitution industrialization International Trade Organization Kuomintang New International Economic Order Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Reserve Bank of India Reconstruction Finance Corporation Royal Institute of International Affairs Special UN Fund for Economic Development Tennessee Valley Authority UN Conference on Trade and Development

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