IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2345.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The ECU - An Imaginary or Embryonic Form of Money: What Can We Learn from History?

Author

Listed:
  • Michael D. Bordo
  • Anna J. Schwartz

Abstract

We present historical examples of new forms of money that can be com- pared with the ECU. We first define the ECU in its official role before turning to developments in the private market for ECUs. We then examine historical antecedents of three attributes of ECUs: a unit of account; a basket of currencies; a basis for monetary integration. We discuss which features if any of ECUs are unique, and the contribution of the historical analysis to assessing the future of ECUs. We then ask whether governments or markets have been dominant in the emergence of new forms of money. Whatever emerges as money in an economy becomes the general means of payment. Prices of commodities, services, and bonds are expressed in units of the money. Buyers use the money to purchase goods or bonds and sellers receive the money is exchange for goods or bonds. We conclude that, at this stage in its history, the ECU at best is an embryonic form of money, closer to historical imaginary monies than to existing currencies that the world has known.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Bordo & Anna J. Schwartz, 1987. "The ECU - An Imaginary or Embryonic Form of Money: What Can We Learn from History?," NBER Working Papers 2345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2345
    Note: ME ITI IFM
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2345.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fraas, Arthur, 1974. "The Second Bank of the United States: An Instrument for an Interregional Monetary Union," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(2), pages 447-467, June.
    2. Cowen, Tyler & Kroszner, Randall, 1987. "The Development of the New Monetary Economics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 567-590, June.
    3. Bordo, Michael D., 1986. "Money, deflation and seigniorage in the fifteenth century: A review essay," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 337-346, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eduardo Loyo, 2001. "Imaginary money against sticky relative prices," Textos para discussão 448, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    2. Robert J. Shiller, 2002. "Indexed Units of Account: Theory and Assessment of Historical Experience," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Fernando Lefort & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Serie (ed.),Indexation, Inflation and Monetary Policy, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 105-134, Central Bank of Chile.
    3. Woosik Moon & Yeongseop Rhee & Deokryong Yoon, 2006. "Regional Currency Unit in Asia : Property and Perspective," Macroeconomics Working Papers 21972, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    4. David Cobham, 1989. "Strategies for Monetary Integration Revisited," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 203-218, March.
    5. Labrinidis, George, 2014. "International reserves in the era of quasi-world money," MPRA Paper 59963, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Loyo, Eduardo, 2002. "Imaginary money against sticky relative prices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1073-1092, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Théret, Bruno, 2011. "Du keynésianisme au libertarianisme.La place de la monnaie dans les transformations du savoir économique autorisé," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 10.
    2. Hugh Rockoff, 1991. "Lessons from the American Experience with Free Banking," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Forrest Capie & Geoffrey E. Wood (ed.), Unregulated Banking, chapter 3, pages 73-129, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Chan Il Park, 1998. "Transactions Demand for Money and the Inverse Relation Between Inflation and Output: the Case of Korean Economy," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 39-51.
    4. Giuseppe Mastromatteo & Luigi Ventura, 2007. "The origin of money: A survey of the contemporary literature," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 54(2), pages 195-224, June.
    5. Landon-Lane, John & Rockoff, Hugh, 2007. "The origin and diffusion of shocks to regional interest rates in the United States, 1880-2002," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 487-500, July.
    6. Boettke Peter, 1990. "The Political Economy Of Utopia : Communism In Soviet Russia, 1918–1921," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 91-138, June.
    7. Jürgen Von Hagen & Ingo Fender, 1998. "Central Bank Policy in a More Perfect Financial System," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 493-532, January.
    8. Motomura, Akira, 1997. "New Data on Minting, Seigniorage, and the Money Supply in Spain (Castile), 1597-1643," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 331-367, July.
    9. Catherine Karyotis, 2008. "Histoire de la compensation: de la monnaie aux titres," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 91(1), pages 77-95.
    10. J. Aschheim & G.S. Tavlas, 1994. "Nominal anchors for monetary policy: a doctrinal analysis," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 47(191), pages 469-494.
    11. Laurence Scialom, 1995. "Les modèles de paiements concurrentiels : éléments d'analyse critique ," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 46(1), pages 35-55.
    12. Barry Eichengreen, 2008. "Sui Generis EMU," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 303, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    13. Malte Krueger, 2012. "Money: A Market Microstructure Approach," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(6), pages 1245-1258, September.
    14. Dan Friedman, 2010. "Evolutionary Games in Economics," Levine's Working Paper Archive 392, David K. Levine.
    15. Bengtsson, Ingemar, 2005. "Central bank power is a matter of faith," Working Papers 2005:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    16. E.J. Weber, 1990. "The Competitive Issue of Paper Money in Switzerland after the Liberal Revolutions in the 19th Century," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 90-19, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    17. Michael D. Bordo & Finn E. Kydland, 1990. "The Gold Standard as a Rule," NBER Working Papers 3367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Chilosi, David & Volckart, Oliver, 2010. "Good or bad money?: debasement, society and the state in the late Middle Ages," Economic History Working Papers 27946, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    19. Nogues-Marco, Pilar & Esteves, Rui, 2019. "Monetary Systems and the Global Balance-of-Payments Adjustment in the Pre-Gold Standard Period, 1700-1870," CEPR Discussion Papers 13652, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Cesarano, Filippo, 1995. "The New Monetary Economics and the theory of money," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 445-455, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.