The miracle of the franc’s recovery may have been good for France but imposed its own financial strains upon Europe. The money drawn back to the franc on Poincaré’s coattails continued to flow in throughout the spring and early summer of 1927, mostly out of sterling. The Banque de France, in an effort to prevent this flood from pushing the franc to uncompetitive levels, kept buying foreign currencies, and by the end of May, had accumulated a foreign exchange war chest totaling $700 million, half of which was in pounds.
