The Gold Standard Peripheries Monetary Policy, Adjustment and Flexibility in a Global Setting

by gren, Anders; ksendal, Lars; Ögren, Anders; Øksendal, Lars Fredrik

• ISBN13: 9780230343177
• ISBN10: 0230343171
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The remarkably successful gold standard before 1914 was the first international monetary regime. This book addresses the experience of the gold standard peripheries; i.e. regime takers with limited influence on the regime. How did small countries adjust to an international monetary regime with seemingly little room for policy autonomy?

Author Biography

Anders gren is Associate Professor at UCBH, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Associated Researcher at EconomiX, University Paris Quest, and Lecturer at Sciences Po in Paris. His most recent books are Convergence and Divergence of National Financial Systems: Evidence from the Cold Standards, 1871-1971 (editor with Patrice Baubeau) and The Swedish Financial Revolution (editor) both published in 2010. He has also published in international journals such as Business History, Explorations in Economic History and Financial History Review. Lars Fredrik ksendal is affiliated with the Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics, and is currently involved in the Norges Bank Bicentenary Project 1816-2016. He has published extensively on Norwegian monetary and financial history in journals such as Financial History Review, International History Review, Contemporary European History and the Review of International Political Economy.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Notes on the Contributors	p. xiv
List of Abbreviations	p. xviii
The Case for the Peripheries	p. 1
Silver or gold?	p. 3
Managed or automatic?	p. 4
The problem of adjustment and the 'rules of the game'	p. 5
What made it successful?	p. 7
What can we learn from the peripheries?	p. 8
Scandinavia
Central Banking and Monetary Policy in Sweden during the Long Nineteenth Century	p. 17
The influence of the monetary policy of the Riksbank	p. 19
Creating flexibility in a system of rigidity: the Riksbank's monetary policy	p. 23
Conclusion	p. 33
Freedom for Manoeuvre: The Norwegian Gold Standard Experience, 1874-1914	p. 37
Norway in the nineteenth century	p. 38
Understanding the gold standard	p. 39
Norwegian monetary policy constraints	p. 41
Mapping the two phenomena	p. 45
Mastering conflicting objectives	p. 48
Conclusion	p. 54
Price Stability in the Periphery during the International Gold Standard: Scandinavia	p. 58
Overview	p. 59
Data	p. 60
Domestic price stability	p. 63
Inflation persistence	p. 68
Cross-border price stability	p. 71
Conclusion	p. 78
Monetary Policy in the Nordic Countries during the Classical Gold Standard Period: The Wicksellian View	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
Economic and historical background	p. 82
The model	p. 86
Estimation	p. 91
Results of the empirical analysis	p. 93
Conclusion	p. 97
Appendix	p. 98
The European Continent
Foreign Exchange Reserve Management in the Nineteenth Century: The National Bank of Belgium in the 1850s	p. 107
Foreign exchange reserve management in the twenty-first century	p. 108
Foreign exchange reserve management in the nineteenth century	p. 109
Financial risk in nineteenth-century foreign reserve management: Belgium	p. 111
Operational risk in nineteenth-century foreign reserve management: Belgium	p. 120
Conclusion	p. 126
Belgian Monetary Policy under the Gold Standard during the Interwar Period	p. 130
The first Belgian attempts to restore the gold standard	p. 130
The gold exchange standard under pressure	p. 136
From a gold exchange standard to a gold bullion standard	p. 139
The money supply in Belgium during the interwar period: an overview	p. 140
Conclusion	p. 144
Floating against the Tide: Spanish Monetary Policy, 1870-1931	p. 145
Capital mobility, fiscal deficits and the balance of payments	p. 147
The monetary policy of the Bank of Spain during the classical gold standard, 1874-1913	p. 150
The Bank of Spain and the gold exchange standard, 1914-31	p. 159
Conclusion	p. 167
Monetary Policy in Southeast Europe on the Road to the Gold Standard	p. 174
Financial stability	p. 176
Monetary autonomy and policy	p. 180
Fiscal interference	p. 183
Conclusion	p. 185
Asia and South America
Domestic Public Debt, Gold Standard and Civil Wars: Institutional Interconnections in Nineteenth-Century Colombia	p. 191
Fiscal deficit and domestic public debt	p. 192
Monetary impact	p. 195
An impure gold standard	p. 197
Other institutional impacts	p. 203
Conclusion	p. 207
The Japanese Economy during the Interwar Period: Instability in the Financial System and the Impact of the World Depression	p. 211
Chronic financial crises and policy responses in the 1920s	p. 212
Reforms in the banking system	p. 215
Return to the gold standard and the Showa depression of 1930-31	p. 218
Conclusion	p. 227
Lessons for the Future
The Euro and the Gold Standard: What are the Lessons?	p. 231
The gold standard in historical perspective	p. 231
The Euro in historical perceptive	p. 234
The future of the Euro	p. 241
Notes	p. 245
Index	p. 262
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