Countercurrent 1978 starts with the production team

After listening to Chu Jianghe's words, Wang Jianye still didn't quite understand, and blurted out: "Why? He said to use their dollars, so those people will use it."

Sun Xiangdong and Feng Yuhui didn't understand the relationship either, and looked at Chu Jianghe with puzzled eyes, hoping that he would give an answer.

Although they are students from the Department of Economics, they are only in their first year and have not had deep exposure to professional courses. They have not yet been exposed to this part of the content in the textbooks. There are not so many channels for them to learn so much extracurricular knowledge, so they do not I understand the reasoning very well.

Chu Jianghe took a puff of cigarette. These people in the dormitory were all his own, and there was nothing he couldn't say.

In addition, I also drank some wine, and the conversation became more exciting, so I was determined to explain to them more clearly.

"International trade needs a reference. Before World War I, most of the currencies of various countries were on the gold standard. Under the gold standard, the value of each unit of currency was equivalent to a certain weight of gold (that is, the gold content of the currency), because most of them were anchored by gold. Fixed goods, at this time, international trade would be more convenient for settlement. After World War I, various countries suffered from serious inflation, printed more money, and their own gold reserves were not enough, so they gradually abandoned the gold standard."

"After the gold standard was abandoned, the exchange rate exchange between currencies became chaotic, which also brought inconvenience to international trade. Therefore, international trade during this period was still mainly settled in gold."

Seeing that Wang Jianye wanted to speak again, Chu Jianghe waved his hand to signal him not to worry.

"Everyone has learned in economics that an important function of currency is the value scale, which means measuring how much your things are worth."

"For example, we sell something for 1 yuan, and the other party wants to buy it, but they don't have our currency. The other party is a small country, so they take a 1 yuan banknote from their country to buy our thing. This is The 1-yuan banknote seems to be a relatively large amount, but no one admits it. It is useless for us to hold it, and no one else accepts it. Currency that cannot be circulated is just a piece of waste paper to us, so they want to buy it from us. If you have something, you can’t take it away unless you pay us gold, that’s the reason.”

Wang Jianye and the others nodded when they heard this, indicating that they understood.

The reason is very simple.

In addition to being related to the country's gold reserves under the gold standard, a country's currency must also be backed by strong national credit.

An unknown small country prints banknotes, no matter how large the amount is, without a certain degree of strength, it is still a piece of waste paper.

Zimbabwe still has banknotes with a face value of 100 trillion. You can try spending them to see what you can buy.

When the value of this currency is at its lowest, even the printing cost is not enough, which means that the real value of this currency is not as high as the cost of printing this banknote.

"The United States happens to meet two of the important conditions. First, it is a strong country. After World War II, all European countries were severely damaged. Only the United States was spared from the war and preserved its strength. Second, it has rich gold reserves. Due to World War I and World War II, the United States It has hoarded a large amount of gold. That’s why the U.S. dollar has become the world’s universal currency. The Bollington Woods system established in 1944 stipulates that every 35 U.S. dollars can be exchanged for one ounce of gold. As long as you hold the U.S. dollar, you can exchange it for gold with the United States. So the U.S. dollar is also called U.S. dollars.”

"The gold content of the U.S. dollar is fixed. In this way, the currencies of various countries only need to be anchored to the U.S. dollar. The pricing efficiency of international trade will be much higher, and the U.S. dollar will become an internationally accepted currency. This is also what the U.S. The embryonic form of financial hegemony.”

After Chu Jianghe explained, Wang Jianye and others understood it clearly, and the Brinton Woods system was also understood by others.

But there was a key issue that Wang Jianye was not sure about, so he asked: "It is true that the U.S. dollar is an international currency and it also facilitates international trade, but what benefits has the United States gained from it?"

"The United States does not engage in loss-making business. The textbook only talks about the Bollington Woods system, but one of the key pieces of information needs your attention. That is, in 1933, Roosevelt issued a decree to sell the Brinton Woods system at US$20.67 per ounce. At a very high price, they forcibly purchased gold from the American people, and also stipulated that private gold transactions were not allowed, and only the official could conduct gold buying and selling operations."

Chu Jianghe said with emotion: "From 20.67 US dollars per ounce of gold to 35 US dollars per ounce of gold, you calculate how much benefit the United States has gained in the middle. This does not mean that the price of American goods has increased and sold to others, but that the currency in their hands has become more expensive. The direct value has soared. Originally, the money on hand could buy something for one yuan. After a meeting, it can now be bought for two yuan. This means that the wealth of the United States has skyrocketed."

Wang Jianye and the others were also smart people. After hearing Chu Jianghe's explanation, they were all stunned for a while, muttering to themselves, not knowing what they were talking about. Obviously, Chu Jianghe's words had a big impact on them.

Wang Jianye reacted first and uttered a curse word: "Damn it, isn't this a blatant robbery?"

Chu Jianghe nodded and said: "Yes, this is blatant robbery. The benefits gained by the United States alone are equivalent to what other countries have accumulated for decades. So: steal the hook. Those who steal the country will be punished, and those who steal the country will be martyred. Don’t look at the well-dressed and aloof appearance of the United States now. To be honest, its primitive accumulation is not that glorious.”

Sun Xiangdong also agreed with Chu Jianghe: "Yes, it has been said in the book that the primitive accumulation of capital is not so glorious. Who doesn't want to be superior? It's just that we don't have as much accumulation as the United States, and our current development is also relatively poor. .”

Feng Yuhui also recovered from the shock just now: "The United States has the right time, place and people. I can't envy this. But Jiang He, didn't the United States announce the decoupling of the US dollar from gold in 1971? Why is it now used internationally? currency or US dollars?”

Chu Jianghe said: "Since the U.S. dollar announced its decoupling from gold in 1971, the U.S. dollar has been devaluing. Now one ounce of gold can be exchanged for more than 200 U.S. dollars."

At this point, Chu Jianghe was stunned. He really wanted to give himself a slap in the face. How could he have forgotten this?

At the beginning of 1979, the value of one ounce of gold was still more than 200 US dollars. By the beginning of 1980, the price would reach a high of 850 US dollars. It was just a good time for me to take advantage of the temporary suspension of classes to speculate on this thing.

This is an excellent opportunity, but you have to think carefully about how to operate it.

Chu Jianghe was stunned for a while and then continued: "In the past few decades, various countries have become accustomed to using US dollars. For a while, they could not find other currencies to replace them, so they had to continue to use US dollars. If these countries are given a few years, it is estimated that There will be new currencies to replace the US dollar, but the United States will not give you this opportunity. In October 1973, OPEC, the world's largest petroleum exporting country, announced that it would use US dollars for settlement. It will be difficult to change in the future."