The Foreign Exchange market today is the largest financial market in the world and is an important tool for international trade. The market allows currency to be bought and sold and in the process the market determines the relative values of currencies against each other. Businesses use it to pay their workers, governments try to control the exchange rates of their currency in order to maintain the economy and investors convert currency back and forth in order to invest and reap the profits. The Foreign Exchange did not always have the importance it has today. When the value of a currency was still tied to real commodities, such as gold and silver, there was little risk that holding a currency would affect profits. Foreign Exchange only had a minor part in finance until the late 1960’s, when governments with the largest economies agreed to part with the established Bretton Woods fixed-rate system and decided to allow trading to determine currency rates, resulting in a floating exchange rate regime.