This book brings together a study of the devaluation of 1931 prepared by
Eichengreen with studies of the devaluations of 1949 and 1967 prepared
by Cairncross. The decision to join forces had led to revision and expansion
of these studies, to a consideration of the common features of the three
devaluations, and to an effort to view these three episodes in the light of
subsequent developments. We have aimed to provide a comparative analysis
of the three devaluations. We have not sought to write an economic history
of the past half-century in terms of successive exchange crises occurring at
18-year intervals. Nor have we attempted to review exhaustively theories of
exchange rates and their relation to the balance of payments or to advance
theories of our own. Nevertheless, we hope that our analysis of these three
devaluations of sterling will be of value in a world where exchange rate
changes are so frequently the subject of attention.
We wish to thank the late G.C. Allen, David Higham, Peter Kenen, Charles
Kindleberger, Donald Moggridge, William Parker, Leslie Pressnell, Lord
Roberthall and Philip Williamson for providing comments on portions of
the manuscript. We acknowledge the permission of the Controller of Her
Majesty's Stationery Office to include in chapters 3 and 4 references to
materials in the Public Record Office. We are grateful also to the Treasury
for facilitating study of some of the papers relating to the devaluation of
1949 which are drawn upon in chapter 4, and to David Higham for
providing some materials used in chapter 5.