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The Politics of Liberal Financial Governance and the Gold Standard

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  • Samuel Knafo

Abstract

This article challenges the way liberal economic governance has come to be theorised as a passive and depoliticised form of governance. Using the classic case of the gold standard, it shows how state intervention came to be shaped by considerations of state power and diverged considerably from the traditional emphasis on free markets and stable conditions of investments. As I argue, the gold standard was constructed through political struggles over monetary governance which involved significant constraints for capitalist investors. Its institutions helped establish a new structure for exerting control over finance. By resituating the gold standard in a broader historical perspective, I show how nineteenth-century monetary governance, far from leading to a retreat of the state, established in fact the foundations of a new form of state intervention: modern central banking.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Knafo, 2013. "The Politics of Liberal Financial Governance and the Gold Standard," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 43-63, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:18:y:2013:i:1:p:43-63
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2012.656083
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hall,Rodney Bruce, 2008. "Central Banking as Global Governance," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521727211, November.
    2. Hall,Rodney Bruce, 2008. "Central Banking as Global Governance," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521898614, November.
    3. Eichengreen, Barry, 1996. "Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195101133.
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