| dc.description.abstract | This study focuses on Canada's involvement in the
informal discussions that ultimately led to the creation
of the International Monetary Fund, These discussions, which
involved three main participants, Canada, the United Kingdom
and the United States, took place during 19^0-19^3
established the basic format of the plan used at the Bretton
Woods conference in 1944.
During the discussions of I940-I943, two proposals
for an international financial organization, one British and
one American, were considered. In part, the differences in
the two proposals were owing to the differences in the British
and American international financial situations. It was the
task of Canadian officials to not only advocate the proposal
that was beneficial to Canadian interests, but also to maintain
Anglo-American cooperation. It is argued that the
position taken by Canadian officials was based on past Csinadian
trade and financial experiences, as well as on expectations of the postwar world. However, Canada needed "both Britain
and the United States in her trade and financial network,
hut this was not assured in either proposal. In fact, it
often seemed as though Britain and the United States would
not he a part of the same international financial organization.
Moreover, there was also a fine line between achieving Anglo-
American cooperation and being faced with an Anglo-American
diktat, which Canadian officials had to deal with.
Although Canadian officials considered either proposal
an improvement over the situation that existed in the
interwar period, they nevertheless believed that further
benefits to Canada could be achieved through active Canadian
participation throughout the informal discussions. With all
of these considerations in mind, Canadian officials drafted
a Canadian proposal which was presented in 1943. | |
