New Delhi, April 16 -- In April 1925, a hundred years ago this month, Winston Churchill, in his capacity as Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, took the fateful decision to return pound sterling to the gold standard at the pre-war rate of exchange.

Churchill then, not unlike US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent now, was torn between two objectives.

On one hand, he wanted to maintain sterling's position as the key currency around which the international monetary system revolved and preserve London's status as the leading international financial centre. On the other hand, he, or at least influential voices around him, saw merit in a more competitive-read 'devalued'- exchange rate that might boost British manufacturing and exports.

Why ...