Officer begins this book with a historical perspective of the monetary
standards of the United States and Britain. He then develops data on
exchange rates, mint parity and gold points, with which he investigates
three important features of Anglo-American monetary history. First, the
integration of the American foreign-exchange market over time. Second,
it is proved that gold-point arbitrage is markedly more efficient than
either interest arbitrage or forward speculation. Third, regime
efficiency is explored from standpoints of both private agents and
policy-makers; the 1925-1931 gold standard, though less durable than the
pre-war standard, is nevertheless shown to be surprisingly stable. The
book will serve as a Dollar-Sterling handbook for those interested in
this important aspect of international monetary history.