THE WORLD BANK AND THE IMF/113He stressed 'the elementary economic axiom that prosperity has no
fixed limits. It is not a finite substance to be diminished by division.'
And he concluded: 'The opportunity before us has been bought with
blood. Let us meet it with faith in one another, with faith in our
common future, which these men fought to make free.'
The 700 delegates rose as the orchestra played the 'Star Spangled
Banner'.
This consensual address obscured the heated debates that had
been going on for months between the heads of the British (above all
J.M. Keynes) and American (H. Morgenthau) delegations. The US
wanted to ensure definitively their supremacy in the world over the
British. The debate between the Americans and the British had begun
before American entry into the Second World War. Winston
Churchill had told President Roosevelt, 'I believe you want to abolish
the British Empire.... Everything you say is confirmation of this fact.
Yet we know that you are our only hope. And you know we know it.
Without America, the British Empire will perish' (quoted by George
and Sabelli, 1994). The US fulfilled its objectives, and the positions
put forward by J.M. Keynes - while officially praised - were actually
marginalised by H. Morgenthau.
The first weeks of the gathering were almost exclusively taken up
by the drafting of IMF statutes, which had been the subject of debate
for some months. The US's main objective was setting up a system to
guarantee postwar financial stability. It wanted to put an end to
competitive devaluations, restrictions on trade, import quotas and all
other measures inhibiting trade. The US wanted free trade without
discrimination against their products. This demand had to be met
since the US was the only Northern country at the time to have a
surplus of basic foodstuffs. The US was also after a favourable climate
for their investment in foreign countries; and the free access to other
countries' raw materials that they had been denied by European
colonial empires.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - or
the World Bank, as it is known - was the first institution of its kind.
Its basic structure, as spelled out in the articles of its Charter, has
remained unchanged.
The Bank's main goals were 'to assist in the reconstruction and
development of territories of members by facilitating the investment
of capital for productive purposes' and 'to promote the long-range