布雷顿森林体系已死，比特币万岁

弗拉基米尔·普京最近宣称“布雷顿森林体系已经死亡”。世界需要一种替代方案，而比特币似乎是一个显而易见的选择。

Vladimir Putin recently stated that “the Bretton Woods system is dead”. The world needs an alternative, and Bitcoin appears to be an obvious choice.

弗拉基米尔·普京最近表示，“布雷顿森林体系已经死亡”。世界需要一种替代方案，而比特币似乎是一个显而易见的选择。

Imperial Currency

帝国货币

Monetary hegemony rarely lasts more than 100 years. The Florentine florin, which reigned supreme in the fourteenth century, was eventually dethroned by the Portuguese real. Then came the Spanish real, the Dutch florin, the French livre, the British pound, and finally the dollar.

货币霸权很少能持续超过100年。佛罗伦萨弗罗林在十四世纪占据统治地位，最终被葡萄牙雷亚尔取代。然后是西班牙雷亚尔、荷兰弗罗林、法国里弗、英镑，最后是美元。

Here is a great infographic tracing the evolution of the share of different currencies in international foreign exchange reserves since 1900:

这是一个很棒的信息图表，追踪了自 1900 年以来不同货币在国际外汇储备中所占份额的演变：

It was from the 1950s that the dollar definitively supplanted the British pound. The transfer of power took place at the Bretton Woods conference. The 40 allied nations agreed that the dollar would become the cornerstone of the international monetary system.

从 20 世纪 50 年代开始，美元最终取代了英镑。权力交接是在布雷顿森林会议上进行的。 40个盟国同意美元将成为国际货币体系的基石。

The United States was in a strong position as most of the world’s gold reserves were in Fort Knox (about 70%). The American war effort was not entirely free… In this regard, let us recall the famous declaration of President Truman two days after Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union:

美国处于强势地位，因为世界上大部分黄金储备都位于诺克斯堡（约 70%）。美国的战争努力并非完全免费……在这方面，让我们回顾一下杜鲁门总统在希特勒入侵苏联两天后发表的著名宣言：

“If we see that Germany is winning, we must help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we must help Germany, and thus let them kill each other as much as possible, although I do not want to see Hitler victorious in any case.”

“如果我们看到德国获胜，我们必须帮助俄罗斯，如果俄罗斯获胜，我们必须帮助德国，从而让他们尽可能地互相残杀，尽管我无论如何都不想看到希特勒获胜。 ”

In short… The dollar, the only currency freely convertible into gold, became the international reserve currency. It was decided that one ounce of gold would be worth 35 dollars and that all exchange rates would be fixed.

简而言之……美元作为唯一可自由兑换黄金的货币，成为国际储备货币。决定一盎司黄金价值 35 美元，所有汇率均固定。

This convertibility into gold was a way for the old continent to ensure that the United States would not finance their imports with the printing press. Until…

这种与黄金的兑换是旧大陆确保美国不会通过印刷机为其进口提供资金的一种方式。直到…

1971

1971年

The Bretton Woods system collapsed in 1971 when President Richard Nixon suspended the conversion of the dollar into gold. Since then, exchange rates have “floated”.

1971 年，理查德·尼克松总统暂停美元与黄金的兑换，布雷顿森林体系崩溃。此后，汇率开始“浮动”。

US Treasury Secretary John Connally had this famous saying to an angry European delegation: “The dollar is our currency, but it’s your problem”.

美国财政部长约翰·康纳利对愤怒的欧洲代表团说过这样一句名言：“美元是我们的货币，但这是你们的问题”。

This decision was taken for two main reasons. The first is that European and Japanese exports became more competitive in the 1960s. This resulted in a decrease in the United States’ share of global production, which reduced the need for dollars. European countries therefore decided to drain the American gold stock, which would fall from 20,000 to 8,000 tons.

做出这一决定有两个主要原因。首先，欧洲和日本的出口在 20 世纪 60 年代变得更具竞争力。这导致美国在全球生产中所占的份额下降，从而减少了对美元的需求。欧洲国家因此决定抽空美国的黄金库存，使美国的黄金库存从2万吨下降到8000吨。

Secondly, Washington knew that the national oil peak reached in 1971 would significantly worsen its trade deficit. The price of a gallon of gasoline increased by 20% between 1964 and 1970.

其次，华盛顿知道1971年达到的全国石油峰值将大大加剧其贸易赤字。 1964 年至 1970 年间，每加仑汽油的价格上涨了 20%。

It was then that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger orchestrated the greatest geopolitical coup of the United States: the petrodollar. Check out this article for a story of this fascinating history.

就在那时，国务卿亨利·基辛格策划了美国最伟大的地缘政治政变：石油美元。查看这篇文章，了解这段迷人历史的故事。

The short story is that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC member nations were forced to sell their oil exclusively in dollars. So much so that despite the end of the Gold Standard, all industrialized nations had no choice but to keep their foreign exchange reserves in dollars.

简而言之，沙特阿拉伯和其他欧佩克成员国被迫仅以美元出售石油。以至于尽管金本位制结束了，所有工业化国家别无选择，只能以美元保留外汇储备。

Fifty years later, the US currency is once again at the center of geopolitical tensions. The Russian president reiterated this again last week.

五十年后，美元再次成为地缘政治紧张局势的中心。俄罗斯总统上周再次重申了这一点。

Petrodollar, no!

石油美元，不！

Vladimir Putin reiterated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that the world needs a new international monetary system:

弗拉基米尔·普京在圣彼得堡国际经济论坛上重申，世界需要一个新的国际货币体系：

“The Bretton Woods system, based on the gold standard, has long been dead. […] The United States abandoned it for the system enshrined in the Jamaica agreements that decoupled the dollar from gold,” he said.

“以金本位为基础的布雷顿森林体系早已消亡。 [……]美国放弃了它，转而采用牙买加协议中规定的美元与黄金脱钩的体系，”他说。

“In fact, what is the basis of this Jamaican system that still exists today? Trust in the American economy. In the current global financial system, there is no other guarantee, so to speak, than trust in the American economy.”

“事实上，今天仍然存在的牙买加制度的基础是什么？对美国经济的信任。可以说，在当前的全球金融体系中，除了对美国经济的信任之外，没有其他保证。”

The problem is that Americans benefit greatly from the end of the Gold Standard. For the Russian tsar, “public data shows that the United States owes about $54 trillion to the rest of the world”. This figure probably represents the cumulative external deficit of the United States.

问题是美国人从金本位制的终结中受益匪浅。对于俄罗斯沙皇来说，“公开数据显示，美国欠世界其他国家约54万亿美元”。这个数字大概代表了美国的累计外部赤字。

The existence of this massive external deficit is due to central banks holding several trillion dollars in reserve in the form of Treasury bonds (public debt). These are as many dollars that are not converted into other currencies and that artificially support the dollar’s value. And this, despite a chronically deficient trade balance. Only the United States benefits from such a privilege.

如此巨大的外部赤字的存在是由于央行持有数万亿美元的国债（公共债务）形式的储备。这些美元没有兑换成其他货币，人为地支撑了美元的价值。尽管贸易平衡长期不足，但还是如此。只有美国才能享受到这样的特权。

Not only do the United States benefit from the system, but they abuse it (disconnecting entire countries from the SWIFT network, freezing foreign exchange reserves, etc). Between the militarization of the dollar and defaults (“freezing”), it is not surprising to see the BRICS making dedollarization a priority.

美国不仅从该系统中受益，而且还滥用该系统（将整个国家与 SWIFT 网络断开、冻结外汇储备等）。在美元军事化和违约（“冻结”）之间，金砖国家将去美元化作为优先事项并不奇怪。

From this point of view, the war in Ukraine can easily be perceived as an attempt to destabilize Russia in order to slow down the dedollarization of which Moscow is the

从这个角度来看，乌克兰战争很容易被视为企图破坏俄罗斯稳定，以减缓莫斯科主导的去美元化进程。