Geneva World Economic Conference (1927)
The World Economic Conference was an international economic conference held in Geneva in May 1927.
Overview
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Georges_Theunis_1921.jpg/220px-Georges_Theunis_1921.jpg)
The conference was held at the Calvinium,[1] from May 4 to 23, 1927, and attended by representatives of 46 member countries of the League of Nations as well as the United States, the Soviet Union, and a few other non-members.
Initially suggested in 1925 by France's Louis Loucheur, it was the first international economic conference formally sponsored by the League, in the wake of the success of the stabilization loans led by its Economic and Financial Organization, particularly in Austria and Hungary, and of the Dawes Plan which had temporarily mitigated the challenge of German war reparations.[2]: 304
Under the chairmanship of former Belgian Prime Minister Georges Theunis, the participants, altogether 194 national delegates and 157 expert advisers,[3]: 18 were not formally representing the respective governments; this feature was similar to that adopted at the Brussels Conference (1920), and unlike at the Genoa Conference (1922).[4]: 465 The scope was broad both geographically and thematically, as conveyed by the official name "World Economic Conference" mirroring Arthur Salter's preference for an international reach in line with the League's own, against Loucheur's preference for a European focus.[2]: 305
Financial considerations were central to the conference. The delegates unanimously stated that "Financial reconstruction is the basis of economic reconstruction".[3]: 17 Efforts to restrain cartels were debated but without success, given the extent of differences between countries.[3]: 18
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ United Nations Geneva (5 September 2019). "#Geneva has been at the heart of modern multilateralism for 100 years". Twitter.
- ^ a b Éric Bussière (Fall 1993), "L'Organisation économique de la SDN et la naissance du régionalisme économique en Europe", Relations Internationales, 75 (75): 301–313, JSTOR 45344530
- ^ a b c Louis W. Pauly (December 1996), "The League of Nations and the Foreshadowing of the International Monetary Fund", Essays in International Finance, 201, Princeton University, SSRN 2173443
- ^ W. Leslie Runciman (September 1927), "The World Economic Conference at Geneva", The Economic Journal, 37 (147), Oxford University Press: 465–472, doi:10.2307/2223577, JSTOR 2223577