
52 INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
during such times, countries started getting off gold, one after another. Countries such as the
United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Austria, and Japan got off gold in 1931. The United States
pulled out from the gold exchange standard in 1933, and many other countries followed suit.
France abandoned the gold exchange standard in 1936.
All these developments hindered international trade and, consequently, had an adverse
effect on global economic growth. It was against this backdrop that the representatives
of some major countries met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, in July 1944.