Abstract
The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 triggered the greatest crisis in the history of capitalism. And yet its impact was not felt in France until 1931/32, far later, for example, than in either Britain or Germany; indeed 1929 and 1930 were the optimum years of inter-war French prosperity. The year 1926 had seen the collapse of the government brought to power after the electoral success of Cartel des gauches, another anti-clerical, centre-left coalition. With the return of Poincaré, former president of the Republic, the dramatic slide in the value of the franc was halted and by 1928 it had been stabilised, albeit at one-fifth of its immediate post-war value. Although a severe blow for those in possession of fixed-rate loans, bonds and insurance policies, it also meant that, ‘[T]he capital that had previously gone abroad flooded the market. Those who yesterday had sought foreign currencies now wanted francs at any pricei’.1 The relatively low but stable franc also provoked a sharp increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting France.
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References
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© 2005 David Drake
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Drake, D. (2005). Fascism, Anti-fascism, Communism, Anti-communism and Pacifism. In: French Intellectuals and Politics from the Dreyfus Affair to the Occupation. French Politics, Society and Culture Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230006096_5
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