Swiss Banking Crises During the Gold Standards, 1906–71 – Dirk

Introduction Switzerland participated in the varying gold standards in the period 1871-1971. Switzerland backed its currency to gold and committed itself to fi xed gold exchange rates from 1878-1914 and from the end of 1924 until 1936. Aft er the Second World War Switzerland returned to gold convertibility until 1973. In order to understand the implications of the gold standard regimes for the divergence and convergence of international fi nancial systems it is important to investigate the outcome for the banking industry. Using a new data set on Swiss banking it becomes possible to study banks’ balance sheets over a long time period from 1906 until 1971.