An international resource-based currency. The history of an idea shared by economists of different schools

The fragmentation of international financial systems, the reshaping of the global economy, and the scramble for resources, stand acutely the question of international payments and money. Modern technologies make possible to organize international currency based on commodities/resources, within a certain group of countries, a regional bloc (BRICS, Africa, Gulf region, etc.), and significantly reduce the transaction costs of maintaining the system. The spread of this idea leads us to return to its intellectual history. In this paper, we outline the main point of the debates in the past, including the positions of the leading economists of different schools who have supported the idea of resource based international currency, such as Jevons, Fisher, Hayek, Friedman, Keynes, Tinbergen, Kaldor, Cooper, Yeager, several French politicians and scholars (such as the PM Pierre Mendes France, Jean de Larentaye, Gabriel Ardant), etc. Special attention is paid to the unknown names in the discussions, and indeed, the fathers of the idea — to Benjamin and Frank Graham, and the Dutchman Jan Goudriaan. An attempt is made to explain this form of consensus on international monetary substantialism.