IMF Archives: Finding Aids
Office of the Managing Director Records
Per Jacobsson Papers
Date(s): 1956-1963 |
Context
Name of Creator: Jacobsson, Per
Administrative/Biographical history: Per Jacobsson was the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s third Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board, serving from 1956 to 1963. He was born on February 05, 1894, in Tanum, Sweden. He entered the Uppsala University in 1912 and graduated with degrees in Law and Economics.
He initiated his career lecturing in economics at the Stockholm Schools of Forestry and Engineering (1918-1920). Then he became: member of the Economic and Financial Section of the League of Nations Secretariat, participating in the reconstruction work in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Danzig and Greece (1920-1928); Secretary General of the Swedish Economic Defense Council (1928-1930); and Economic Advisor and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements (1931) where he worked for 25 years. Outside the Bank he also undertook many important assignments. For instance, from 1934 to 1938 he was a member of the Irish Banking Commission which led to the establishment of the Central Bank of Ireland, and from 1947 to 1949 he was connected with the Italian financial stability reforms. He also conducted a number of special inquiries into the economic and financial problems of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Sterling Area. In 1952 he played an active role in setting up the Basel Centre for Economic and Financial Research.
In September, 1956 Jacobsson was appointed Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the IMF for a five-year term, taking up his duties in December of the same year. The Executive Directors of the IMF extended his appointment as Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of the Fund through to February 5, 1964.
Under Jacobsson's leadership, the IMF was guided through the years of its greatest growth in activity and financial resources. During his tenure as Managing Director, the resources of the IMF were strengthened through a general increase in members' quotas and by the stand-by arrangements to borrow, from the major industrial countries. In 1957 the IMF took a second general decision on multiple currency practices and notified members that it would no longer approve complex systems unless the members maintaining them were making reasonable progress toward simplification. In 1958, 14 West European countries made their currencies externally convertible for current transactions, permitting nonresidents to exchange their earnings in these currencies from current transactions into any other currency at rates within the official margins.
The first general increase in IMF quotas became effective in 1959. In 1961 nine West European members and Peru accepted the obligations of Article VIII of the IMF's Agreement. This move resulted in all the major currencies becoming convertible. In a reversal of a 1946 interpretation of the Articles, the IMF took a decision permitting use of its resources for capital transfers. Another important milestone for the IMF under Jacobsson's leadership was that the General Agreements to Borrow (GAB) went into effect. Under this arrangement the ten largest industrial members stood ready to lend the IMF $6 billion. Also the Compensatory Financing Facility was established in 1963, in which members experiencing temporary shortfalls in their export earnings could draw on the IMF.
Jacobsson received honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin; Gettysburg College; and Basel, Uppsala and Columbia Universities. He also was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and Honorary Foreign Member of the Political Economy Club (London). In addition, he wrote four books on economic problems (Post-War Economic Problems (1918), World's Armament Expenditure (1929), Monetary Improvements in Europe and Problems of a Return to Convertibility (1950), and Some Monetary Problems: International and National (1958), as well as co-authoring two mysteries under the pseudonym of Peter Oldfield (The Death of a Diplomat (Washburn, 1928), and The Alchemy Murder (Washburn, 1929).
Per Jacobsson died on May 5, 1963, in London, while in office as Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of Directors of the IMF.
Content and structure
Scope and content: Sub-fonds consists of the files of the third Managing Director, Per Jacobsson of Sweden, who served as Managing Director from 1956 until his death in 1963. This sub-fonds consists of 8 series: Administration Files, Chronological Files, Correspondence, Jacobsson Estate Files, Meetings and Speeches, Social Events Files, Subject Files, and Travel Files. The files cover all aspects of IMF activity. There are files pertaining to the Managing Director's role at the Annual Meetings and invitations to speak at conferences and seminars. Some of these files contain remarks delivered by the Managing Director and several files of speeches given by Jacobsson. There are also several files pertaining to the publication of the Annual Report of the IMF. There is a limited number of correspondence files with contemporaries and colleagues of the Managing Director on issues relating to the IMF or country membership. Related to the correspondence files is a set of "Day Files" containing the Managing Director's outgoing correspondence file copies. There is also material that pertains to Jacobsson's death in London while on IMF business. Found in these files are memorial services programs, correspondence and memoranda regarding the repatriation of Mrs. Jacobsson along with the transfer of the Managing Director's papers. There are files relating to public appearances by the Managing Director, including an appearance on "Meet the Press" and an interview given to "Newsweek." Finally, there are "Social Files" which describe social functions organized and attended by the Managing Director, often to honor retiring staff or to host country delegations during an official visit to the IMF.
Some folder titles have been renamed to more adequately reflect their contents. In 2003, the material was rearranged according to Jacobsson's primary activities. In addition, artificial series were created to further organize the files.
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