The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), founded in 1930, works as the “Bank for Central Banks”. The BIS is an international forum where central bankers and officials gather to cope with international financial issues, and a bank which invests the funds of the member countries. This book is a historical study on the BIS, from its foundation to the 1970s. Using archival sources of the Bank and financial institutions of the member countries, this book aims to clarify how the BIS faced the challenges of contemporary international financial system.
The book deals with following subjects: Why and how the BIS has been founded? How did the BIS cope with the Great Depression in the 1930s? Was the BIS responsible for the looted gold incident during WWII? After the dissolution sentence at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, how did the BIS survive? How did the BIS act during the dollar crisis in the 1960s and the 1970s? A thorough analysis of the balance sheets supports the archival investigation on the above issues.
The BIS has been, and is still an institution which proposes an “alternative views”: Crisis manager under the Great Depression of the 1930s, peace feeler during the WWII, market friendly bank in the golden age of the Keynesian interventionism, and crisis fighter during the recent world financial turmoil. Harmonizing the methodology of economic history, international finances and history of economic thoughts, the book traces the past events to the current world economy under financial crisis.

It was not only British and French banks that developed extensive operations in the Far East before the First World War for there were representatives from Germany and Russia as well as other countries. This chapter provides an account of a Russian bank that expanded into China at this time. This bank had a strong French connection, with a branch in Paris, and opened branches in both Siberia and China. What this reveals is Russia as a European power expanding eastwards, and this included China because of a common land border. To this bank the expansion into China was little more than an extension of its domestic operations unlike the other international banks that developed in Asia at this time. It thus operated more as domestic bank, accepting deposits and making loans, rather than being heavily engaged in the finance of trade and international financial flows.

This paper is a historical analysis of the currency crisis in 1920's France in its relation to the completion of "Le franc Poincare". The franc depreciation right after the World War I appeared in compound relation to the triple critical situation of the post-war French economy : inflation, trade balance deficit, and financial difficulty. This relation was reorganized through the restoration process from the economic crisis in 1920, and then the currency crisis was directly connected to the financial difficulty. During the process, industrial firms gained export premium, and commercial banks were forming monetary circuit by rediscounting of the accepted government bonds. Early in 1924, the exchange rate of the franc sharply failed. In the socio-economic critical situation, the Cartel des Gauches won the election in May 1924. The Cartel des Gauches administration tried several political measures against the currency crisis such as foundation of capital levy and consolidation of the floating debts. However, heading to the collapse of the administration, the government bond issue which was then the only possible political choice, faced a severe difficulty. In July 1926, after the collapse of the second Herriot cabinet, Poincare was inaugurated the prime minister, and the franc stabilization was set about. In the final phase of the currency crisis, industrial firms and commercial banks had changed their tactics from "anti-inflation" to "the approval of inflation". The financial difficulty and the recession in the summer of 1926 were the background of their decision. "Le franc Poincare" was a result of the inflationist decision.

1.The Analysis of the Circulation of Funds at British Overseas BanksThe circulation of funds between the head offices and branches in the period from the 1850s to 1913 has been analyzed from the figures of the branch balance sheets at the Chartered Bank and the Chartered Mercantile Bank. The time series statistics complied from the trade goods between Britain and Asian countries have also been compared with the inwards and outwards exchange transactions of these two banks, and relations between the distribution of goods and the circulation of funds have been indicated. Furthermore, the causes of the sharp decline in silver price since the 1870s, and their actual effects on the assets and the fund position of British overseas banks have been examined. Although there has been a small number of the surviving records concerning the Oriental Bank Corporation, the most eminent British overseas bank of those days and bankrupt in 1884, its new record has been collected at the British National Archives and examined. The Hongkong Shanghai Bank's Hongkong branch new managerial records as well in the Inter-war period at the Shanghai Business History Center have been picked up and studied.2.Relations between the London Money Market and the Activities of International BanksResearches on bank histories published by British overseas banks and London clearing banks, and on concerned financial journals have been carried out. On this basis the various issues of existing studies have reviewed. The archival research on the relations between British overseas banks and the London clearing banks, the [London] City Bank and the London Joint Stock Bank, has been done and analyzed from a viewpoint of the London discount market. It has been revealed from this study that the role of London (head) offices is most important for the management of British overseas banks.3.The Analysis of German and French Overseas Banks, and of their Local ActivitiesFor German international banks, records concerning the Deutsche-Asiatische Bank, held at the Archives of the Deutsche Bank, have been investigated and collected. From these the activities of the Deutsch-Asiatiche Bank in the Shantung Province in China have been revealed ; for French international banks, the new records concerning the Banque de l'Indo-chine, the Comptoir d'Escompte and the France-Russo Banque have been pursued and their actual transactions in Asia have been studied. In particular, it has been confirmed that the record of the Franco-Russo Banque, held at the Japanese Foreign Office Archives, is useful ; for American international banks, the record of the International Banking Corporation, held at the Shanghai Business History Center, has been collected and examined

The purpose of this project was to make dear the evolution of the international monetary and financial system during the post-war period, in its relation to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Special interests have been paid on the BIS, on its theoretical background, the political feature, and the economic thoughts engaged. The BIS, founded in 1930 in order to strain the cooperation between central banks, has been a forum to negotiate and to establish financial policies of the member countries. This research project tried to reveal the historical process of central bank cooperation after the Second World War, depending upon the archival sources of the BIS, and to make analysis on the historical presuppositions of the financial globalization nowadays from the points of view either of international relations or of the international comparison. Our main focuses were as follows: German reparations problem, World Depression, Post-War planning on international financial system, Infra-European settlements scheme, Euro-Currency market, crisis of the dollar and the pound-sterling, floating rate system.The main results achieved were as followings:1. In order to understand the history of the BIS, as well as the historical development of the international financial system, especially in its relation to the central banking, the French case has been studied and some points of discussion have been proposed.2. A current of economic thoughts called "financial utopianism" has engaged to the foundation of the BIS. This current has been inquired under the comparative perspective between economic thoughts and the international financial history.3. The relation between the BIS and the Bank of Japan has been made clear after the archival studies and interviews.4. The coexistence of the BIS policies and financial crisis during the interwar period has been studied.5. To cope with the Post-war financial innovations, such as the rise of Euro-currency market or the development of the swap operations, the BIS proposed some unique policies. The project has enlightened some unknown cases.6. The BIS's cooperation with the G-10 during the period of the crisis of the fixed exchange rate system has been investigated. Thus obtained the historical perspective on the floating exchange rate system

In our researches during the term of project, we have explained the contribution of neo-liberalism to the reformation of capital economic systems after World War II in European countries. Many economists (including Hayek) and businessmen believing in neo-liberalism who joined in Colloque de Walter Lippmann, participated in the Mont Perelin Society founded in 1947. Through the network of neo-liberalist which was formed by the activities of the Mont Perelin Society, neo-liberalism has been reflected on the real economic policies of the European and American countries before the 1980s.About the reform of central bank, the political conception of neo-liberalism which makes great account of the market principle was incorporated in the establishment of German Federal Bank and its exchange policy in West Germany, the credit and monetary policy of the central bank in France and the reform of banking system in the United States of America. In the process of the European integration after world, war II, neo-liberalism has influenced the negotiators of the European Coal and Steel Community and European Economic Community. But we have found the various opinions about the governmental intervention in market and about the control of monopolization among the neo-liberalists in these processes of policy formation. It is remarkable that the difference of there opinions came from not only their ideas but also the economic and political situations where they found themselves

During the nineteenth century, the economic governance in Western Nations were mostly promoted by utilizing the phrases of progress and liberty. The individualistic social view in UK and the positivist idea and the stream of engineer-economists in France were the typical cases. However, this framework was confronted with the modification because of the new issues such as the transit of the community under the high trend of urbanization, the batting of the interest between industrial interest and the financial one, and the tensions among the social ranks.Under the change of the social situation around the fine-de-siecle, the organic view of the society got the popularity. The organicism of T.H. Green, the liberal organic view of Emile Durkheim, and the evolutional view of Herbert Spencer were adapted to explain the various social issues. For example, Emile Cheysson in France explained the condition of town life in organic perspective. Alongside the tasks of producing the scheme of social network, new issue gradually got the importance especially after the first world war: namely reconciling the international relationships in economic dimension.This research project firstly made the comparison of the evolutionary ideas of economic society among the French, British, German and American context. Secondly, the project followed the change of the historical dimension of international situation since fine-de-siecle until the interwar period, especially focusing to the scheme of British Empire, the transition of Austrian liberalism and the international monetary system. This project promoted these researches by arranging the workshops and seminars, to which those Professors Michael Freeden (Oxford, UK), Martin Daunton (Cambridge, UK), Luigino Bruni (Milano-Biccoca, Italy), Hansjorg Klausinger (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria), David Weinstein (Wake Forest, USA) and Malcolm Rutherford (Victoria, Canada) et al had joined

This project aimed to make clear the founding process of the floating exchange system, in relation to the roles played by international financial institutions as well as the function of international monetary market, as follows : (1) to investigate the structural features of three interest groups, the United States, European countries and Japan, in the decision making process to build up the floating exchange system, (2) to shed lights on contemporary political alternatives, as "maintaining the fixed rate system", and (3) to reconstitute activities of international financial institutions and international monetary markets as "forums" where historical decisions took place, after non-published historical archives.After three-years research, the project reached following results : (1) Relation between international financial institutions and international monetary markets during the founding period of the floating exchange system has been made clear, focusing on the Euro-currency market, (2) Significant role of the Wicksellian economic theory upon contemporary political alternatives has been discovered, and (3) Management of the BIS has been investigated in relation to international monetary market, especially with gold market. In the course of the research, moreover, the project succeeded to make comparison between strategies of Japanese and French central banks at the Basle Committee for Banking Supervision.Above results have been presented on co-editing book (1), academic presentations at foreign associations (3), foreign peer-reviewed co-authored articles (2), and domestic peer-reviewed article (1), etc

Recently the study of modern economic history has remarkably developed. As the result we need a new frame of reference in order to explain the newly discovered historical facts. For example, with regard to Germany, the NS wage policy receives much more attention of researchers than Keynesian economic policy as an extremely important factor to explain the economic recovery in the early 1930s. Furthermore as the additional important facts concerning of our theme the following could be listed: A kind of affinity between German Neo Liberalism (Ordoliberalismus)and National Socialism, the relative normal relationship between NS State and private business firms, where private property and freedom of contract played the ample role, and the international cooperation with capitalist states including NS Germany through BIS since the Interwar period. Taking into account these research contexts, we investigated the following from the viewpoint of liberal interventionism and administration of market economy, which tries to overcome the dichotomy of either Intervention or Laissez-Faire: the historical formation of liberal interventionism concerning economic thought, finance and monetary system, and public service industry in Germany; neo liberal idea of international finance and monetary system of BIB; control and management of market in the wartime Japan; influence of NS economic thought on Wartime Japan; the relationship between Neo Liberalism and Social Market Economy since 1948 in West Germany. We hold the panel discussion on this theme in the Conference of the Political Economy and Economic History Society in 2006. We invited Professor Werner Abelshauser and Professor Jochen Streb as foreign cooperators in order to hold research meetings in Japan

On the turn of the centuries from nineteenth to twentieth, the organic view of the society and the evolutionary view had mutually affected, and took the important role for the reformation of the image and style of the society. On the sphere of the economic governance, there appeared two striking types:the 'soft' version which basically relied upon the spontaneous formation of the institution, organization and custom or the way of life, and the 'hard' one which provided the guidelines under the uniform orientation. In accounting the radical transit of the meaning of those words of 'welfare' and 'well-being' on that era, this research project examined the connotation of the organic view until the inter-war perio

This study aims to examine the financial infrastructure in the Northeast Asia from the late nineteenth century up to the middle of the twentieth century, from the viewpoint of economic history. Geographical order of the "Northeast Asia" in this study includes the Fareast Russia, Northeast China, Korea and Japan. The "Financial Infrastructure" means socio-economic conditions under which the financial system functions, such as banking system, clearing customs and currency circulation. The study project focused on financial history of the region in relation to the international monetary system, in order to overview the regional financial system from the worldwide perspectives

Our new analysis of the Bretton Woods System at the adjustablepeg era gave a new aspects and outcome on its origin and its working mechanism. We tried it by using the original documents and records of IMF, WB, BIS and National Archives of U. S. A and U. K. in cooperation with their staff. It is the first attempt all over the world. As a result, we are able to analyze the movement of the international money and capital market not only theoretically but historically and institutionally