Money and Trade Wars in Interwar Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. The Gold Standard Reinstated

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. War Reparations and Hyperinflation in Germany

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 3-21

   3. The Reichsmark: Stabilization and Foreign Loans

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 22-42

   4. Golden Fetters Revisited

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 43-67

3. The Gold Standard Collapse: Nationalism and Bilateralism in International Financial Relations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

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   2. Towards Nationalism

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 71-104

   3. Bond Repatriation, Export Subsidies and Clearing Agreements

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 105-137

   4. Germany’s and Italy’s Relations with Southeastern Europe

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 138-154

   5. The Italian-German Clearing

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 155-171

4. What Europe?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173

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   2. The Funk Plan

      • Paolo Fonzi

      Pages 175-191

   3. Money for the World of Tomorrow

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 192-207

   4. Postscript

      • Alessandro Roselli

      Pages 208-214

5. Back Matter

   Pages 215-259

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This books explains, on the basis of archival evidence and a simple economic model, why and how the gold standard collapsed in the interwar period. It also reveals how bilateralism and dirigisme in international financial relations emerged from the collapse of the universal gold standard, and how this poisoned international relations.

• Economic history
• interwar history
• international monetary system
• gold standard
• central banking
• Clearing
• Eastern Europe
• Europe
• Germany
• Inflation
• international relations
• nationalism
• trade
• banking

'Alessandro Roselli has unearthed intriguing documents in the Bank of Italy's archive revealing the developing Nazi German plan of the early WWII years for Europe's future economic and financial organization. The new Europe would be run by Germany and Italy. Showing clearly how the elements of the plan had their origins in the turmoil of the interwar years, he has produced a scholarly, fluently-written, and genuinely fascinating account and closes with thoughts on what eventually happened in Europe.'

- Forrest Capie, Professor Emeritus of Economic History, Cass Business School, City University, London, and author of The Bank of England, 1950s to 1979

• Cass Business School, London, UK

  Alessandro Roselli

Alessandro Roselli is Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School, City University, London, and at the University of Buckingham, UK. He has spent most of his career at the central Bank of Italy and has been A.C. Jemolo fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He has written extensively on banking, finance and economic history. His most recent book is Financial Structures and Regulation: A Comparison of Crises in the UK, USA and Italy.

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