Another critical development in this period was the creation of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) - as 'the central bank of central banks' - in 1930.

The BIS – Bank for International Settlements – Library of Rickandria

Carroll Quigley (/ˈkwɪɡli/; November 9, 1910 – January 3, 1977) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University, and his seminal works, The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis, and Tragedy and Hope; A History of the World in Our Time, in which he states that an Anglo-American banking elite have worked together for centuries to spread certain values globally.

'To create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.'

But the push started many years before with Montagu Norman (Bank of England) and Benjamin Strong (the first governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) both committed advocates.

Benjamin Strong Jr. (December 22, 1872 – October 16, 1928) was an American banker. He served as Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 14 years until his death. He exerted great influence over the policy and actions of the entire Federal Reserve System and indeed over the financial policies of all of the United States and Europe.

'In the 1920's, they were determined to use the financial power of Britain and of the United States to force all the major countries of the world to go on the gold standard and to operate it through central banks free from all political control, with all questions of international finance to be settled by agreements by such central banks without interference from governments.'

This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.

Each central bank, in the hands of men like,

Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman DSO PC (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English banker, best known for his role as the Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944.

Charles Rist of the Bank of France.

Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970, German pronunciation: [ˈjalmaʁ ˈʃaxt]) was a German economist, banker, politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparations obligations. He was also central in helping create the group of German industrialists and landowners that pushed Hindenburg to appoint the first NSDAP-led government.

But, Quigley points out:

It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance.

They were not.

Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down.

The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called 'international' or 'merchant' bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks.

These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks.

This dominance of investment bankers was based on their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and throughout the world.

They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their own countries by their influence over the flow of current funds through bank loans, the discount rate, and the re-discounting of commercial debts; they could dominate governments by their control over current government loans and the play of the international exchanges. 

Almost all of this power was exercised by the personal influence and prestige of men who had demonstrated their ability in the past to bring off successful financial coupe, to keep their word, to remain cool in a crisis, and to share their winning opportunities with their associates.

In this system the Rothschilds had been preeminent during much of the nineteenth century.

pp. 242-3 & 245.

'The Bank shall enjoy immunity from jurisdiction' and 'members of the Board of Directors of the Bank, together with the representatives of those central banks which are members of the Bank' with 'immunity from arrest or imprisonment'.

Agreement between the Swiss Federal Council and the Bank for International Settlements to determine the Bank's legal status in Switzerland':

They are accountable to no-one.

For an excellent and detailed account of the Bank for International Settlements, see Adam LeBor's:

Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World.

'In the early 1930s the guiding vehicle for this international system of financial and political control' was the BIS, headquartered in Basle.

'Continued its work during World War II as the medium through which the bankers - who... were not at war with each other - continued a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas, information, and planning for the post-war world.'

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler pp. 11-12.

A notable exception was US Major General Smedley Butler who at least spelled out the critical role that war played in wealth creation for the elite.

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed the Maverick Marine, was a senior United States Marine Corps officer. During his 34-year career, he fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and the Banana Wars. At the time of his death, Butler had become the most decorated Marine in U.S. military history. By the end of his career, Butler had received sixteen medals, including five for heroism; he is the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal as well as two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.

Following more than three decades of highly-decorated service in the US Marine Corp, Butler later described his experience in the following terms:

'I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers.

In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.'

In his book published in 1935, he wrote:

'War is a racket.

It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious...

It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...

It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.

Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.'