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Currency Reforms in the Polish State After 1945

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Currency Reforms in the Polish State After 1945 STuDIa HISToRIae oeConomICae uam Vol. 35 Poznań 2017 zhg.amu.edu.pl/sho Robert J a s t r z ę b s k i (University of Warsaw) CuRRenCY ReFoRmS In THe PoLISH STaTe aFTeR 1945. LeGaLeConomIC ISSueS The subject of the article are currency reforms that were carried out after the Second World War in the Polish state. The first legal regulations from 1944 - 45 concerned the unification of the mon- ey circulation, which in practice meant the exchange of occupation money for the new currency. However, the repayment of financial claims made before the outbreak of the war was regulated by a decree of 1949. Another monetary reform concerned the new, socialist economic policy of the Polish state. The basis for it was the Act of October 28, 1950 on the change of the monetary system. After this reform, periodic changes in prices and wages were introduced, which were not based on strictly legislative solutions. In practice, these ordinances were in the nature of new monetary reforms. The Act of 1950 was repealed by the Act of 7 July 1994 on the denomination of the zloty. Keywords: currency reforms, inflation, deflation, monetary nominalism, valorization doi:10.1515/sho-2017-0007 PRELIMINARY ISSUES The concept of currency reform is related to the economic recovery of the state and most often concerns the introduction of a new cash measure into circulation, i.e. a new currency. It is to replace the current payment instrument, which is most often the so-called inflation money. Currency reforms are usually the result of a state-led inflation policy aimed at sat- isfying current economic needs. Such a policy is connected with the im- position of the so-called inflationary tax by the state [Szturm de Sztrem T. 1923; Rybarski R. 1935: 197-198; Dalton H. 1948: 164-168]. In connection with this, as Jan Wasilkowski stated: In periods of crisis caused by economic or political events (primarily war) the state is forced to look for sources of income in the issuance of currency, nominalism is a con- ditio sine qua non of this method of financing public expenditure. Losses incurred by individual units then, due to a drop in the value of income and property, determined 98 Robert Jastrzębski numerically in cash, can be painful; however, they are unavoidable if the issue is to ful- fil its purpose, that is, to provide purchasing power to meet social needs that cannot be met otherwise [Wasilkowski J. 1948: 44]. In this way, the state uses one of the characteristics of money, i.e. ex- emption from obligations, both public and private law. This means that the state can conduct a specific economic policy related to the change in the purchasing power of money, in particular its reduction, which re- sults directly from the increase in money emission. This kind of policy was carried out already in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages it was re- ferred to as the ‘spoilage of coins’, while recognizing that monetae sunt re- gales [Stelmachowski a. 1965: 282 et seq.]. Inflation phenomena that cur- rency reforms involve often have an impact on economic development. Such opinion was expressed, amongst others, Henryk Gruber, who explic- itly stated that “progress goes hand in hand with the development of in- flation processes, without which the world would be stuck in the condi- tions of the middle ages” [Gruber H. 1968: 310]. It is worth noting that in the 20th century, the essence of money, including its functions, was vari- ously defined. This was mainly due to two world wars, the great econom- ic crisis of the 1930s and the doctrine of socialist economics [See more: Fedorowicz Z. 1962; Fedorowicz Z. 1975; Żabiński Z. 1988; Kosikowski C. 1990]. money is both the subject of economic and legal phenomena. In the lat- ter case, it should be recognized that it is a monetary unit defined by the state, by means of legal regulations, which has the ability to release from obligations by payment [orłowski m. 1937: 1448; Żabiński Z. 1972]. an important role from the legal point of understanding the essence of money has two basic theories. The former one, called nominalism, assumes that money is a product of the legal order, and therefore has the character of an abstract accounting unit. The latter one - metallistic, assumes that mon- ey has a certain economic value (commodity) [Żabiński Z. 1965]. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the issue of money was based mainly on gold (the so-called gold standard). after the end of the war, the system of issuing cash marks was referred to as the gold-exchange currency (the so-called gold exchange standard). It is worth noting that the creation of the last system was associated with the figure of an outstanding Polish lawyer and economist Leon Biliński, who before the outbreak of the First World War, fulfilling important functions in the austro-Hungarian monarchy, had introduced the last of the currency systems in the dualistic monarchy Currency Reforms in the Polish State after 1945 99 [Biliński L. 1924: 147 et seq.]. Subsequent changes in determining the es- sence of money were related to the great economic crisis of the 1930s and to J. m. Keynes, who essentially assumed that money can be one of the in- struments to get out of the crisis and the state can shape its circulation in a way that meets specific needs. [Kalecki m. 1936; Keynes J. m. 1985]. at the end of the Second World War, the attempt to return to the currency- zloty (PLn) exchange system was an agreement at the Bretton Woods con- ference in July 1944 [Langrod R. 1946; Karpiński Z. 1964: 9 et seq.; Piłejko K. 1971: 185 et seq.]. Conducting currency reforms during the Second Polish Republic was connected with the creation of a new state on the European continent. In the first place, they resulted from the inflation policy conducted by the state, which in practice consisted in printing the Polish brand by the Polish national Loan Fund. [Rybarski R. 1922: 3 et seq.; Karpiński Z. 1968: 29 et seq.; Taylor e. 1926; morawski W. 2008]. In this way, the Polish state found a source of income that enabled it to function at all, because the financial resources inherited from the period of partitions were in fact a substitute for money. The inflation policy carried out since 1918 had to be finally ter- minated due to the progressive hyperinflation. This was due to the fact that hyperinflation did not bring any benefits to the state, and even be- came dangerous, because, as Feliks młynarski stated, “economic life, like nature, however, does not know its rights and miracles” [młynarski F. 1925: 62]. Therefore, it was necessary to carry out currency and economic reforms, and thus break with the current inflation policy.a fter stabilizing the zloty, the so-called post-inflation crisis, referred to as the second Polish inflation took place [Taylor e. 1926; Grabski Wł. 1927: 176 et seq.; Grabski Wł. Druga inflacja…1927]. Finally, in 1927, the rules of the new monetary system were defined, which basically did not change until the outbreak of the Second World War [Landau Z. 1963; Karpiński Z. 1968: 101 et seq.; Zajda J. 1986: 36 et seq.]. It should be emphasized that in Poland, the phenomenon of inflation before the outbreak of the Second World War had a different character than after 1945 that is in the period of People’s Poland, and from 1952, the Polish People’s Republic1. It resulted from a different economic structure influenced by political and social ideology of socialism. That is why in- flation in both periods differed in genesis, course and effects [See more: 1 The name of the Polish state resulted from the entry into force of the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic of 22 July 1952 (Journal of Laws no. 33, item 232). 100 Robert Jastrzębski Rutkowski J. 1989: 13 et seq.; Landau Z., Roszkowski W. 1995: 127 et seq.]. This was due to the fact that the socialist economy was a centrally planned economy. Therefore, inflation took the form of the so-called dampened in- flation, and money was one of the elements of the implementation of eco- nomic plans [See more: Winiecki J. 1986: 171 et seq.; Belka m. 1994: 283- 285; Landau Z. Roszkowski W. 1995: 133-134; Kurowski S. 1990: 153 et seq.; Jastrzębski R. 2013]. CuRRenCY ReFoRmS aFTeR 1945 as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War, the area of the Polish state was under the control of the occupiers who had exchanged the zloty for their own currencies - the German mark and the ruble. The ex- ception was the General Governorship, for which the issuing institution was the Bank of Issue in Poland, whose statute was announced in mid-De- cember 1939. The Bank commenced its activities at the beginning of april 1940. Its first activity was exchanging tickets of the Bank of Poland to the tickets of the Bank of Issue in Poland. The activity of this issuing insti- tution in practice resembled the functioning of the Polish national Loan Fund during the First World War, it was inflationary, and the cash circu- lation (the so-called Zloty Krakowski) increased by more than five times at the end of the German occupation, namely around 2 billion - the Bank’s ticket exchange period Polskie, to over 10 billion – the end of the German occupation [Karpiński Z. 1968: 157-166]. It was one of the forms of exploi- tation of the occupied Polish territories, which was used in other coun- tries, e.g.
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