The Netherlands and the Gold Standard, 1931-1936: A Study in policy formation and policy

On 26 September 1936, deep in the night, the Dutch cabinet took the decision to cut the guilder's link with gold and to devalue its currency. It was the last of the increasingly isolated and beleaguered 'gold bloc' countries to do so, having outlasted Switzerland by less than a day; the last country in Europe in which holders of a currency could exchange it for gold at the rate which had prevailed before the First World War; the last country to leave the gold standard. The reason why the 'G...