NBP Working Paper No. 328 Poland, the international monetary system and the Bank of England, 1921–1939 William A. Allen NBP Working Paper No. 328 Poland, the international monetary system and the Bank of England, 1921–1939 William A. Allen Narodowy Bank Polski Warsaw 2020 William A. Allen – National Institute of Economic and Social Research London, England;
[email protected] Acknowledgements This paper was inspired by discussions with Zbigniew Polański. I am extremely grateful to him, and to Cecylia Leszczyńska, for their encouragement and valuable comments on earlier versions of the paper, for collecting data and making them available to me, and for reviewing the data in the paper. I am also extremely grateful to Mikołaj Szadkowski for help with editing the paper, and to Mike Anson, Margherita Orlando and the other staff of the Bank of England archives for their expert help. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Susan Howson’s very useful advice. All errors of fact and interpretation are my own. Further comments would be welcome. Published by: Narodowy Bank Polski Education & Publishing Department ul. Świętokrzyska 11/21 00-919 Warszawa, Poland www.nbp.pl ISSN 2084-624X © Copyright Narodowy Bank Polski 2020 Contents Abstract 4 List of abbreviations 5 1. Introduction 6 2. The Brussels and Genoa conferences 7 3. Infl ation, the Hilton Young mission, and the advent of Grabski, 1923–1924 10 4. The foundation of the Bank Polski and the fi rst stabilisation programme, 1924–1925 19 5. The depreciation and re-stabilisation of the złoty, and the loan negotiations, 1925–1927 26 6.