Gold, code and the rupee: Inside the quiet war over how the world will pay

In November 1956, Britain learned what its money was really worth. British and French troops had seized the Suez Canal and were winning on the ground. But the pound was not. Traders dumped sterling — some $450 million of reserves gone in a month — and Washington, opposed to the invasion, blocked the IMF rescue Britain needed. US President Eisenhower never fired a shot; he let the pound bleed until Britain withdrew, humiliated, within weeks. Britain had discovered that whoever controls the system you pay through owns a piece of your sovereignty. Seventy years on, three screens replayed the lesson….