By the late 1960s, however, the Bretton Woods dream of a stable monetary system of fixed exchange rates with the US dollar as the only international currency was collapsing under the strain of US trade and budgetary deficits. A guarded optimism took hold in the South fuelled by moderately high growth rates and a boom in the price of Third World produced primary commodities, particularly oil. This came to a head in 1974 with the declaration of principles for a New International Economic Order. The response to these sweeping demands for change was a few tinkering, inconsequential reforms.