4 Pence – British Guiana

In 1938, British Guiana’s currency system was a direct colonial construct, operating under a sterling exchange standard. The local currency was the British Guiana dollar, fixed at a rate of 4 shillings and 2 pence sterling (or $4.80 to £1). This peg meant the colony’s money supply and credit conditions were entirely dependent on the balance of payments and the decisions of British-linked commercial banks, primarily Barclays (DCO) and the Royal Bank of Canada. There was no central bank; currency issuance was managed through a Currency Board in London, which held sterling reserves to back the local notes in circulation, ensuring convertibility but severely limiting local economic autonomy.

The system profoundly shaped the colony’s economic and social distress, a key factor in the widespread labour riots and strikes of 1938. The money supply was inelastic, often contracting during periods of low export earnings from sugar and bauxite, exacerbating deflationary pressures. Combined with a rigid banking sector that extended little credit outside of the established export industries, this starved the small agricultural and entrepreneurial sectors of capital. Consequently, workers and the unemployed faced severe cash shortages, stagnant wages, and high costs for imported goods, fueling the social unrest that swept through the colony.

The 1938 disturbances, part of a broader wave of Caribbean protests, forced a colonial commission of inquiry which indirectly critiqued the monetary straitjacket. While immediate currency reform was not enacted, the crisis highlighted the systemic flaws of a rigid colonial exchange system that prioritized imperial financial stability over local developmental needs. This scrutiny would later contribute to post-war movements toward financial autonomy and development banking in the lead-up to decolonization.