Conclusion

Summary

In February 1939, Chancellor of the Exchequer John Simon praised the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA), telling the House of Commons that “the reputation” of the account “is one of our great sources of strength. We were the first country to show the world how to do it. It is being done with great skill, and we owe a great deal to the devoted men, whose work is never published, who watch this matter and serve the country so well in trying to maintain our currency value.” While the EEA’s reputation had not always been so high – foreign observers likened the account to a weapon of war in its early days – by the time of Simon’s address it was admired at home and abroad as a protector of monetary peace and the nation’s prestige. As for the men who managed it and indeed all those involved in sterling policy, they witnessed and contributed to immense changes in the monetary system, the consequences of which reverberate to this day. They were born under the gold standard, worked to reconstruct it after the First World War, started to dismantle it in 1931, and then created a new method of management that sought to balance exchange stability with internal prosperity.