With the conference now close to collapse, Pierre Quesnay of the Banque de France told one of the Americans that evening that French depositors would withdraw $200 million from German banks by noon the next day. It was unclear whether this was intended as a threat or a prediction. In any case, Germany suddenly began to lose gold at an accelerating pace—$100 million over the next ten days, forcing the Reichsbank to raise rates to 7.5 percent, despite Germany’s being deep in recession, with two million unemployed.
