Gulden Deterdinged

Stuffy Dutch burghers, members of the Netherlands Society for Industry and Commerce, opened at their meeting in Rotterdam last week a letter as explosive as two sticks of dynamite. Signed by Holland's world potent petrol tycoon, Sir Henri Deterding, it urged the Netherlands to reduce the gold content of the gulden, "in order to help trade."

Almost without debate, the shocked Dutch industrialists voted abhorrence of Sir Henri's "inflationist proposal" but news of it leaked into the Press. Instantly world foreign exchange prices rocked. The gulden tumbled nearly two cents and the French franc took a fractional dip. Swiss francs held "stable as the Alps" as Dutchmen cursed Sir Henri for the first bad gulden break since it was stabilized in 1925.

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