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The French Crime of 1873: An Essay on the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1870–1880

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Marc Flandreau
Marc Flandreau
Affiliation:
The author is Researcher at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Chercheur Associé at the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE)
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Extract

This article attempts to provide a new view of how the bimetallic standard was maintained before 1873 and how it came to change into a monometallic gold standard between 1870 and 1880. The conventional view that the gold standard emerged out of the contradictions of bimetallism is not persuasive. Instead, this article claims that bimetallism might have survived and provides an alternative explanation of the emergence of the gold standard. Political and historical factors proved essential in precipitating the uncoordinated emergence of the international gold standard.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 862 - 897
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1996

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