Hugo Bänziger (eabh) and Thomas Mayer (Flossbach von Storch Research Institute) discuss Monetary Unions from the Latin Currency Union to the European Monetary Union of today.
Why are monetary unions created? Which are the drivers? If monetary unions are mere devices to obtain political power, what motivates independent countries to join? Do political aspirations always dominate economic reason? Or is the facilitation of international trade the one most important factor to participate in these standard setting unions?
Inflationary monetary policies (seignorage) are ancient techniques of financing the state, as much as the migration of paper money towards the North of Europe has historical precedent for a variety of reasons. Now, how do these insights give perspective to what is happening on the stage of international monetary policy? Does Europe today compare to the late Roman Empire?
*The topic will further be discussed at the 2022 eabh annual conference in cooperation with the Bulgarian National Bank on 1 July 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria. We are still open for submissions: http://bankinghistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022_Sofia_Monetary-Unions-in-History.pdf