BREAKING with the dead hand of the gold standard was the key to economic revival. Britain did so in 1931 and began its recovery that year. The United States followed in March 1933 and that proved to be the low point in its depression. France hung on to its link with gold for the longest. In 1935, Clément Moret was fired as governor of the Banque de France for resisting government measures to utilize its gold reserves to expand credit. Only in the following year did France finally abandon the gold standard. It was thus the last of the major economies to emerge from depression.
