The event that precipitated Price's political career and the formation of the PUP, was the devaluation of the British Honduras dollar on 31 December 1949. In September 1949, the British government devalued the British pound sterling. In spite of repeated denials by the Governor that the British Honduras dollar would be devalued to maintain the old exchange rate with the British pound, devaluation was nevertheless effected by the Governor, using his reserve powers in defiance of the Legislative Council. The Governor's action angered the nationalists because it reflected the limits of the legislature and revealed the extent of the colonial administration's power. The devaluation enraged labour because it protected the interests of the big transnationals, such as the Belize Estate and Produce Company, whose trade in British pounds would have suffered without devaluation while it subjected British Honduras's working class, already experiencing widespread unemployment and poverty, to higher prices for goods—especially food—imported from the United States. Devaluation thus united labour, nationalists and the Creole middle classes in opposition to the colonial administration. On the night that the Governor declared the devaluation, the People's Committee was formed and the nascent independence movement suddenly matured.