The Banking Crisis (RLE Banking & Finance)

CHAPTER V.—RUNS ON THE DOLLAR

THE FIRST BUN IS MET

DURING September, 1931, while the Bank of England and the British government fought their desperate but losing battle for the maintenance of the gold standard, foreign owners of deposits in New York took alarm and withdrew funds from the United States on such a large scale as to necessitate gold exports of $254,000,000 in that one month. After the fall of the pound sterling, the run on the dollar increased to panic proportions. From all over the world came demands for gold in the United States, so that during the month of October alone the monetary stock of gold in the United States decreased by the unprecedented amount of $448,000,000. In the space of two months the United States lost $700,000,000 ...