The Theory of Monetary Standards Applied to Pan-European Money and Monetary Control

Abstract

I reported on symmetallism in 1963, influenced by Marshall and Friedman (1951a/1953); and began to understand its ultimate extension, a full tabular standard, in 1986 — expanding this bridgehead in Burstein (1988 and 1989a). But I had no good idea of the theory’s praxis until I visited Banca d’Italia. It turns out that the theoretical foundations of a common European currency, and the corollary possibility of a European monetary authority, can be fashioned from these materials.