The impact of a unified European currency on the international monetary system and Britain's entry into the European Community.

After a century and a half of efforts at constructing arrangements and rules for international monetary interaction, present-day national authorities do not seem to have come much closer to achieving the aim of enduring exchange rate stability combined with a good macroeconomic performance. A distinguished group of economists and economic historians offers new insights into the working of the most important of such experiences, including nineteenth century bimetallism, the 'classical' gold standard, Bretton Woods and the European Monetary System.

This book interprets the historical evolution of how and why the international monetary system has been transformed. The strategies of the major decision-makers are defined and described, and an analysis made of how these strategies were adapted. The structure of the analysis differs from other such contributions, in that it does not concentrate on the way in which disturbances have developed, but rather on describing the pattern of reaction of policy makers to disturbances, and in particular on the political element in the decisions. This structure of analysis makes relevance criteria somewhat different from most academic literature on the international monetary system. A substantial amount of evidence is presented that has hitherto been largely neglected by experts; for example the sterling support schemes, the gold pool transactions, the use of the swap network, Schiller's preparation of the German block floating, the intervention pattern among key currencies, and the views arising from the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee. In order to facilitate comparison with other presentations careful documentation is provided of the points made. Apart from the literature referred to in the Bibliography, all material used - comprising documents, memoranda, publications and communiqués - has been organized in a computer index containing about 500 entries. Background material covered by one or more of these entries is available to the interested reader.

When the European Monetary System (EMS) was created in 1978, economists on both sides of the Atlantic predicted its early failure. Today, EMS is alive and well, continuing to defy conventional economic wisdom. The authors address three major questions about the European Monetary System (EMS): how it came into being, how it works and how it may evolve into a fully-fledged monetary union.

The introduction of the euro was an important event for the world economy and the international political system. For the first time in history, a substantial group of European countries-eleven of the fifteen members of the European Union including three members of the G-7-have voluntarily agreed to replace their national currencies with a single currency. The euro area has already become established as the second largest currency area in the world and will therefore become a major player in the international monetary system. The creation of the euro poses a number of interesting questions. Will the euro be a strong or a weak currency? Will the euro challenge the leading position hitherto held by the United States dollar and would sharing of the burdens and advantages of reserve currency status improve or worsen the stability of the international monetary system? How will the euro affect US relations with Europe? Does the formation of the euro intensify European integration in other fields? Is a bi-polar international monetary system viable? These and other issues motivated the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies and the Pierre Werner Foundation to organize an international conference in Luxembourg on December 3-4, 1998, on the eve of the birth of the euro. At the outset we were aware that the issue of the euro went far beyond pure economics. Money, after all, is too important a subject to be left to economists.

Recoge: 1. International motives for the EEC iniative - 2. The EBB and flow of european monetary integration - 3. The EMS and the conditions for its proper operation - 4. Five years with EMS - 5. The furure of EMS.