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Political Conditions for International Currency Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

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Recent schemes for international currency reform are unrealistic to the extent that they are derived as optimum solutions to economic problems alone. International currency arrangements are instances of international organization generally, and consequently fall within the scope of political sociology as much as—if not more than—of pure economics. Political complications must therefore not only be acknowledged, as they usually are, but analyzed as well, as they often are not. This essay represents an inquiry in that direction.

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Copyright © The IO Foundation 1964

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References

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3 For the classic exposition of the logic behind this process, see Loesch, August, The Economics of Location (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954)Google Scholar.

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8 Conant, Charles, A History of Modern Banks of Issue (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909), p. 98Google Scholar. The ultimate backing for the currency was found in similar pledges in Scotland in 1745, in Ireland in 1770, and elsewhere at other times.

9 Premonetary treasure hoards appear to have been accumulations of scarce objects of magical or prestige value, used for essentially ceremonial functions as offerings to temples, to brides, to secret societies, to victors in contests or in war, and the like. See Gerloff, Wilhelm, Die Entstehung des Geldes (Frankfurt: Klosterman, 1947)Google Scholar.

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28 Quoted in Common Market, March 1963, p. 51.

28 Herbert Feis, loc. cit.

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31 One can compare the average current account surplus from 1951 to 1955 with that from 1956 to 1960. For Germany it rose from 1.95 percent of the average Gross National Product to 3.04 percent; for the United States it fell from 1.21 percent to 1.04 percent. Clearly, world demand was shifting from American to German goods. (Computed from figures in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, General Statistics, 11 1962Google Scholar.)

32 Kitzinger, Uwe, The Challenge of the Common Market (2nd ed. rev.; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1961), p. 153Google Scholar. See also Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, loc. cit.

33 Morgenstern, , op. cit., p. 572Google Scholar, reflects the same view.

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36 The United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

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