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The price of gold, as denominated in US dollars, was stable until the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the mid-1970s. The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among 44 countries, including the United States, Canada, Western European countries, and Australia [1] after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement.
The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the late 1920s to 1932 [1] [2] as well as from 1944 until 1971 when the United States unilaterally terminated convertibility of the US dollar to gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. [3]
In the absence of an international mechanism tying the dollar to gold via fixed exchange rates, the dollar became a pure fiat currency and as such fell to its free market exchange price versus gold. Consequently, the price of gold rose from $35/ounce (1.125 $/g) in 1969 to almost $500 (29 $/g) in 1980.
"A stronger U.S. dollar will suppress the price of gold, while a weaker U.S. dollar will likely drive the price of gold higher through increased demand," he explains.
"An important corollary is the rate at which central banks worldwide have been acquiring gold, purchasing record amounts for the last 2.5 years, while the use of dollars in world trade has diminished.
The Smithsonian Agreement was created when the Group of Ten (G-10) states (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) raised the price of gold to 38 dollars, an 8.5% increase over the previous price at which the US government had promised to redeem dollars for gold. In ...
The Nixon shock was the effect of a series of economic measures, including wage and price freezes, surcharges on imports, and the unilateral cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold, taken by United States president Richard Nixon on 15 August 1971 in response to increasing inflation.
Gold prices (US$ per troy ounce), in nominal US$ and inflation adjusted US$ from 1914 onward. Price of gold 1915–2022 Gold price history in 1960–2014 Gold price per gram between Jan 1971 and Jan 2012. The graph shows nominal price in US dollars, the price in 1971 and 2011 US dollars.