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A century of monetary reform in South-East Europe: from political autonomy to the gold standard, 1815–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2017

Matthias Morys
Matthias Morys*
Affiliation:
University of York
*
Matthias Morys, Department of Economics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom; email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article documents and analyses monetary reform in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Romania from 1815 (Serbian autonomy within the Ottoman Empire) to 1910, when Greece became the last country in the region to join the gold standard. It explains the five key steps towards monetary reform which the four countries took in the same chronological order, and asks why national coinage and the foundation of a bank of note issue came late in the reform process. The South-East European countries tried to emulate West European prototypes, yet economic backwardness meant such institutions were often different from the outset, remained short-lived or both.

Keywords

gold standardcentral banksSouth-East Europe

JEL classification

N14: Europe: 1913– N13: Europe: Pre-1913 N24: Europe: 1913– E42: Monetary Systems • Standards • Regimes • Government and the Monetary System • Payment Systems F33: International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions E58: Central Banks and Their Policies N23: Europe: Pre-1913
Type
Articles
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 24 , Special Issue 1: Financial and Monetary History of South-East Europe , April 2017 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V. 2017 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to the guest editors of this special issue and two anonymous referees for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. This article draws partly on independent research, partly on work carried out as academic advisor to the South-East European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN) between 2006 and 2014. I owe special thanks (without implicating anyone) to the following people for providing me with feedback, helping me collect the data, sharing their data and/or explaining country-specific idiosyncrasies for which knowledge of the local languages was often essential: Adriana Aloman, Roumen Avramov, Elisabeta Blejan, Olga Christodoulaki, Brandusa Costache, Kalina Dimitrova, Margarita Dritsas, Ljiljana Djurdjevic, Martin Ivanov, Clemens Jobst, Michael Kopsidis, Sofia Lazaretou, Stefan Nikolic, Michael Palairet, Thomas Scheiber and Milan Sojic.

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