ABSTRACT
In this chapter we follow a time line of the international financial system as it functioned from the latter half of the nineteenth century until today.This takes us on a journey through the four principal types of financial system we have experienced: gold standard; Bretton Woods standard; flexible exchange rates; and cooperative intervention. Our travels take us through some remarkable territory, including the radical experiment of the creation of a new currency shared by many nations, the euro. Many crises on different continents, in Asia, Central and South America, are visited along the way.
