FRANCE
France was experiencing an inflation that resulted in part from the cost of rebuilding the devastated areas—a cost that drained government finances .It resulted also from the high cost of maintaining armed forces (for the French dared not disarm), from the general disorder of international trade, and from the staggering debts piled up during the war by the French government, which, had preferred loans to taxes.
By the mid-1920s the franc had slipped from its prewar value of twenty cents against the dollar to a dangerous low of about two cents. The French inflation caused economic and social dislocation. Those French who had lent their government francs worth twenty cents were only repaid only one fifth of their loans. This very considerable loss fell with particular severity on the lower middle class.The greatest sufferers were those living on their savings or on relatively fixed incomes.
In France, the heavy losses in manpower at the front decimated an entire generation of Frenchmen and is thought to have created a leadership vacuum when that generation came of age. France had fallen behind Germany and England in population during the 19th century. They were, therefore, less able to sustain wartime losses. France also suffered untold property damage since most of the war on the western front was fought on French soil.
By the mid-1920s the franc had slipped from its prewar value of twenty cents against the dollar to a dangerous low of about two cents. The French inflation caused economic and social dislocation. Those French who had lent their government francs worth twenty cents were only repaid only one fifth of their loans. This very considerable loss fell with particular severity on the lower middle class.The greatest sufferers were those living on their savings or on relatively fixed incomes.
In France, the heavy losses in manpower at the front decimated an entire generation of Frenchmen and is thought to have created a leadership vacuum when that generation came of age. France had fallen behind Germany and England in population during the 19th century. They were, therefore, less able to sustain wartime losses. France also suffered untold property damage since most of the war on the western front was fought on French soil.