58 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS 
par and even stood at a premium on the Geneva market 
with regard to the Swiss franc,! and sterling, after a fall 
at the end of 1919, had also recovered. The French 
franc and Italian lira, on the contrary, fluctuated for a 
long time, their curves being nearly parallel, and soon 
depreciated to a point unknown during the whole war. 
In 1919 the franc was quoted at Geneva with a loss of 
more than 50%, at the beginning of the year, and through- 
out that year its depreciation remained between 509, and 
60%,, while the Italian lira fluctuated round about 109%, 
or 15%, less than the franc and sometimes even lower. 
Hence, in relation to the dollar, which had again become 
the typical currency freely exported and imported and 
circulating at par, the franc depreciated by as much as 
70%, in 1920. It is well known that after numerous 
fluctuations it has ended by losing much more still. For 
the dollar has been quoted in Paris at 28-13 francs (the 
par of exchange being 5-18), and sterling, which has 
nearly reached par, has risen at the moment of writing to 
120 francs (maximum of March 10th, 1924). 
But even so, the depreciation of the French franc is 
very small compared with that which occurred in allied 
countries in Central Europe, whose currencies in turn 
fell heavily in relation to the French franc. In 1923 the 
Roumanian leu remained for a long time at about 8 cen- 
times, after having fallen still lower, and finally rose above 
10 centimes ; and the Polish exchange suffered infinitely 
greater depreciation. 
The exchange curves of the defeated countries were at 
first, in 1919 and 1920, approximately parallel to those of 
the French and Italian exchanges ; the crown depreciated 
by more than 959%, at Geneva, and the mark by more 
than 909, at the end of 1919, and remained at the same 
level throughout 1920 and even at the beginning of 1921. 
But a fresh fall occurred after the Schedule of Payments 
1 Tt should not be forgotten that in most countries gold cannot even yet 
be freely exported; this explains why exchange fluctuations, going far 
beyond the gold points, should have persisted even in countries with a gold 
circulation.