After oil import quotas and restrictions on trade outflows were insufficient, by 1960, targeted efforts began to maintain the Bretton Woods system and to enforce the US$35 per ounce gold valuation. Late in 1960, amidst US presidential election debates, panic buying of gold led to a surge in price to over US$40 per oz, causing agreements between the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to stabilize the price by allocating for sale substantial gold supplies held by the Bank of England.[4] The United States sought means of ending the drain on its gold reserves.