In former days, silver was a popular metal for monetary exchange. It was replaced by papers or banknotes under French rule, but the name ‘silver’ (vi: Bạc) has still be retained. In the historical sense, the inflation in French Indochina as a result of the World Depression in 1929, had a devastating effect on the country and people of Vietnam, accelerating the collapse of the colony’s economy. In addition, when then the Second World War broke out in Europe, French extracted further resources from Indochina to support France against Nazi Germany. The fact that the Vietnamese people lost their sovereignty made them more vulnerable to any disaster in the world, through French colonial rule. Đồng (Piaster)

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