The gold standard was the effective global monetary regime from well before its formal adoption by Great Britain in 1717 to the shutting of the gold window by Richard Nixon in 1971. In more recent times, the monetary structure of the post-war world constructed at the famous Bretton Woods conference in July 1944 clearly adhered to this age-old standard. The 44 countries at Bretton Woods agreed to peg their currencies to the US dollar, which in turn was pegged to gold at a rate of $35 per ounce. In effect, the monetary structure of the world was now anchored to…

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