On the Two Stages of the Key Currency Crisis after World War II

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to make clear the character and historical position of key currency crisis (1987/88) which was linked with the unprecedented worldwide crash in stock market. In the first place, the author divides the postwar stage of international monetary system into the period of the fixed exchange-rate system and that of the floating-exchange rate system, and prescribes the general characteristic of key currency crisis in the postwar stage as a flight of capital from the key currency to the universal money, or "the change-over from the credit system to the monetary system". The points at issue brought forward by the above-mentioned consideration are as follows. 1) The reason why "the change-over from the credit system to the monetary system" is unavoidable, regardless of the great change in the foreign exchang rate system, which resulted from the suspension of dollar's convertibility into gold. 2) The difference between the phases of the dollar-crisis and dollar-defence in the fixed exchange rate system and those in the floating exchange-rate system. 3) The character and historical position of the key currency crisis (1987/88) in the postwar stage of world capitalism. By considering these points on the base of Marx's credit theory, this paper insists firstly, that the characteristic of this crisis is the missing of the "last resort", and secondly, that historical position of this crisis is understood as the time when privilege of the US dollar as the key currency has to be restricted, in connection with the transformation of the Japanese Yen into an international currency.