Pierre Quesnay is an almost archetypal example of the financial expert, a figure who emerged after the Great War. First for the League of Nations, then for the Bank of France, and finally for the Bank for International Settlements, he traveled constantly through Eastern and Central Europe, in particular to stabilize the currencies and then to deal with the world crisis. Based on unpublished sources, this journey allows us to distinguish some singular characteristics of the financial aspects of France’s diplomatic action in these areas. It also shows how the purely political discourse of financial experts appears at a crucial moment in the transformation of issuing banks into central banks.
