Money and Politics : European Monetary Unification and the International Gold Standard (1865-1873)

This is a detailed study of a little-known attempt to create monetary union throughout the whole of Europe in the late nineteenth century. It explores political, diplomatic, and economic aspects of the Latin Monetary Union between 1865 and 1873. Areas such as the debate between economists and the public, and the daily operations, conflicts of interest, and power struggles between national banks and governments in the age of Gladstone, Napoleon III, and Bismarck are examined.