Discussion paper

DP13652 Monetary Systems and the Global Balance-of-Payments Adjustment in the Pre-Gold Standard Period, 1700-1870

We divide this paper into four sections. The first section outlines the taxonomy of commodity-based monetary regimes in Europe and their advantages and costs. The second section describes the main international monetary flows in the Early Modern period and relates them to East-West balance-of-trade adjustments and monetary systems in Asia (1700-1800). In the third section, we turn to the development of the foreign exchange market, which was mostly based on bills of exchange in this period. We explain the expansion of bills-of-exchange market from the European to the intercontinental network in the mid-19th century. The final section then investigates how nominal exchange rates and relative prices contributed to the global current account adjustments in the near pre-gold standard period (1820s-1870s).

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Citation

Esteves, R and P Nogues-Marco (2019), ‘DP13652 Monetary Systems and the Global Balance-of-Payments Adjustment in the Pre-Gold Standard Period, 1700-1870‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 13652. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp13652