Looking backwards and living forwards: the EMU and the history of monetary unions in Western Europe

Abstract

European monetary history prior to 1950 presents many attempts at international monetary coordination, but none were as bold and as far reaching as the European Monetary Union envisioned in the Delors Report of 1989 and enacted through the 1991 Treaty on the European Union in Maastricht. This paper looks backwards to past monetary unions in Western Europe and the transition of the international reserve currency from the Pound Sterling to the US Dollar to understand better the implications of the first decade of the Euro and to extend this understanding forwards to Europe and beyond.