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Well, it dates back to when the gold standard ended in 1971, and then there was the oil crisis in 1973 etc.

• JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > it dates back to when the gold standard ended in 1971, and then there was the oil crisis in 1973 The U.S. dollar was put at the centre of the Bretton Woods system in 1944 [1] because the United States, at the end of WWII, (a) held a global nuclear monopoly and (b) was the sole industrial power not bombed to the turn of the century. The dollar thus took its central place in global trade. That, in turn, led to oil being priced and traded in dollars. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_Conference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_Conference