Monetary unions in Europe : historical experience

• Autor(a) principal: Valério, Nuno
• Data de Publicação: 1995
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/9395
• topic: Stratégies and Plans; European Monetary Union; Exchange Rates; International Monetary Arrangements; Economic History

The feasibility of the plans to build an European Monetary Union should be tested against similar processes in the past. However, some doubts may be raised about which are the relevant similar processes in the past. The feasibility of the phase of irrevocably fixed exchange rates calls for comparison with the experience of international monetary systems such as the gold-standard and the gold-exchange standard. This experience shows that irrevocably fixed exchange rates are likely to be revocable whenever national security or any other social goal is considered more important than monetary stability. The feasibiliTy of the phase of replacement of several old national currencies by a new single European currency calls for comparison with the experience of Italian (early 1860s) and German (early 1870s and again 1990) monetary unifications. This experience shows that the only safe way to monetary unification is the quick and once for ever replacement of several old currencies by the new single currency (which may of course be one of the old currencies).