over in the sub r/interestingasfuck there is currently a thread about an old map made in Japan in 1932 that uses cartoons and text to describe the other countries of the world as they currently looked.
For instance in Germany we can see Hitler grappling with Hindeburg and in India the british are having problems with a giant Gandhi.
For France we see the image of a seemingly troubled man (who resembles Pierre Laval, the prime minister of france 1931-32) taking a footbath in what appears to be a tub of gold goins.
The caption supposedly reads "France, suffering from having to much money"
So why did France have so much money in the interwar years and what happened with it that made a cartoonist all the way over in Japan to use that to focus on when making a satirical map describing the countries of the world?
The cartoon- for reference here is the map in question- is noting the spectacular increase in French gold reserves when it placed the franc back on the gold standard in December 1926. US Federal Reserve estimates in 1943 calculated that France while held around ca. 11.6% of the world's gold in 1928, that number had increased to ca. 28% in 1932 despite France having a relatively small economy and suffering from the Great Depression. The reasons why the Bank of France engaged in these policies to acquire these gold reserves were multifaceted and complex. One explanation of French behavior was that restoring the franc to its prewar convertibility ratio was a major domestic policy. Another thesis put forward by the economic historian Kenneth Mouré was that the Bank of France saw itself as acting in the larger interests of the gold standard in light of American fiscal policies. Mouré's work qualifies the thesis of Barry Eichengreen who contended that the French were to a degree trapped by their commitment to the gold standard.
These economic history debates are often quite technical, but French monetary policy was something that aroused contemporary comment. A number of economists and policy wonks in the 1930s did critique the Bank of France's behavior and the perception that it was hoarding gold. Keynes would observe in 1932 with a degree of sarcasm:
And, when the last gold bar in the world has been safely lodged in the Bank of France, that will be the appropriate moment for the German Government to announce that one of their chemists has just perfected the technique for making the stuff at 6d. an ounce.
The economist Paul Einzig would likewise attack the Bank's actions as deflationary and counterproductive to arresting the Depression in a series of books in the early 1930s. While the Laval government had a close relationship with the bank, the Left opposition saw the Bank as calling the shots and hurting relief efforts in the name of sound currency.
The Japanese cartoon in question was not only a reflection of the perception France had too much gold, but that these monetary policies were also fueling internal political conflict while doing little to alleviate the Depression's impact on France.
