--- title: Currency Devaluation of British Pound: This Week in History description: The devaluation of the British pound was "bound to throw the West into a severe monetary crisis," TIME reported this week in 1967. canonical: https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-20T14:00:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:13:04.875Z article:section: History og:title: 50 Years Ago This Week: Britain's Money Crisis og:description: Also in this issue: Vietnam and population growth og:url: https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24808c7de9d50358/6988e591e76ad263b262fecf/1101671124_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: Nov. 24, 1967 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 50 Years Ago This Week: Britain's Money Crisis twitter:description: Also in this issue: Vietnam and population growth twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24808c7de9d50358/6988e591e76ad263b262fecf/1101671124_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 50 Years Ago This Week: Britain's Money Crisis > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 20, 2017 2:00 PM UTC  The Nov. 24, 1967, cover of TIME The Nov. 24, 1967, cover of TIMECover Credit: ALAN CLIFTON  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 20, 2017 2:00 PM UTC _Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME._ [_Catch up on last week’s installment here._](http://ti.me/2h82Rpx) [**Week 47: Nov. 17, 1967**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/pages/) For this week’s cover story, TIME [looked across the pond](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/39/) to Britain, where Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s government had announced a 14.3% devaluation of the pound, a decision that ran counter to Wilson’s previous promises and that seemed “bound to throw the West into a severe monetary crisis.” The move stood to hurt average Britons in their pocketbooks, as their pay got less valuable, but to benefit the deficit-swamped nation by making exports cheaper. What had gotten the U.K. into this financial trouble? TIME explained: --- > “” --- Before making the decision to devalue, Wilson and his government had tried austerity measures and wage freezes but, while Wilson’s popularity sank and unemployment rose, it didn’t work. Whether the devaluation would make the difference remained to be seen. **Positive prognosis:** As Gen. William Westmoreland paid a visit to the White House, he [told the President and the nation](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/32/) that he had “never been more encouraged” about progress in Vietnam. That optimism, and the idea that keeping up the pressure was the only way to sustain the progress made, would haunt U.S. leadership in the years to come. **The opposition:** In fact, it wouldn’t take much time at all to hear from the other side on the Vietnam issue, as Sen. Robert F. Kennedy released a new book that [took President Johnson’s administration to task](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/36/) for bungling the chance to get out of the war via peace talks earlier that year. **Modernization mess:** Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere had [decreed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/50/) that his nation’s Masai people should leave behind the ancient customs that he deemed “unhealthy.” They were ordered to wear modern, Western clothing or else face prison time, and to publicly burn their tribal ceremonial gear. Part of the campaign was a backlash to foreign romanticism about the Masai, which drove tourists to pay extra for photos in which the tribesmen pretended to threaten them, but clearly went too far, in an echo of the “civilizing” campaigns that have marred the history of many nations [including the United States.](http://time.com/4341115/history-michelle-obama-graduation-santa-fe/) **Happy birthday:** This week in 1967, the United States [welcomed its 200 millionth citizen](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/80/) — provoking demographers and others to raise the alarm about national and global overpopulation. Experts figured that in the year 2000, the U.S. population would be 308 million and the world population would be around 6.8 billion. (Actual figures: about[ 281.4 million](https://www.census.gov/census2000/states/us.html) and [6.1 billion](https://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table%5Fpopulation.php).) The only solution they could see was a campaign advocating [zero population growth,](http://time.com/4388565/zero-population-growth-world-population-day-2016/) including measures such as a tax on children and full legalization of abortion. **Screen time:** As presidential television viewing habits [continue](http://thehill.com/homenews/media/353895-fox-friends-a-favorite-of-trump-expands-to-5-hours) to make news, it’s worth noting that the question of what powerful people watched on TV was a concern in 1967, too. [The answer](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/87/), in a time of many fewer options, was that many American VIPs abstained almost entirely, but at the White House the _Today_ show was common viewing, while President Johnson got in plenty of TV time by watching “the suppertime news reports simultaneously on his three-set console, and on Sundays samples _Meet the Press_ (NBC), _Face the Nation_ (CBS) and _Issues and Answers_ (ABC).” **Great vintage ad:** This mouthspray ad, which [encourages consumers](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-11-24/page/54/) to take a big bite out of the salami that they’re presumed to be carrying around, is pretty darn strange. **Coming up next week:** [The Miniskirt](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-12-01/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/"},"headline":"50 Years Ago This Week: Britain's Money Crisis","datePublished":"2017-11-20T14:00:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:13:04.875Z","description":"Also in this issue: Vietnam and population growth","url":"https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/","keywords":["Media"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24808c7de9d50358/6988e591e76ad263b262fecf/1101671124_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24808c7de9d50358/6988e591e76ad263b262fecf/1101671124_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nov. 24, 1967","caption":"Nov. 24, 1967","creditText":"Cover Credit: ALAN CLIFTON","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/media/","name":"Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5021394/1967-british-pound-devaluation/","name":"50 Years Ago This Week: Britain's Money Crisis"}}]}] ```