The Złoty

Harold James is Professor in History and International Affairs and Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies at Princeton University. His books include The German Slump (1986), International Monetary Cooperation since Bretton Woods (1996), The End of Globalization (2001), and recently Making a Modern Central Bank: The Bank of England 1979-2003 (2020) and Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises that Shaped Globalization (2023). Marzenna James is a lecturer in public and international affairs at Princeton University, in the Politics Department and the School of Public and International Affairs. She has published on economic power in Obserwator Finansowy, Kultura i Społeczeństwo and Studia Polityczne in the 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 volumes in the Library of Economic Thought Series of The Polish Economic Society, Warsaw.

• Introduction: the monetary odyssey; 1. Inflation: wealth out of nothing; 2. 'O własnych siłach', on one's own: the tale of two reforms; 3. Przeciwko nim, against them: stabilization and misery; 4. On the brink: the later 1930s; 5. Kto ma bronić złotego, jeżeli my sami będziemy od niego uciekać? Who is to defend the złoty, if we ourselves run away from it? The Second World War; 6. Dlaczego ogórek nie śpiewa: why does the cucumber not sing? The bank in a planned economy; 7. 'Jest źle:' the long transformation or a 'somewhat half-baked economic reform'; 8. Inflation and transition: war at the top, Wojna na górze; 9. Not necessarily NICE: the management of openness; Conclusion: the escape from inflation, or arriving home from the odyssey.