Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on historical issues and, in particular, the history of the international monetary system. It examines the evolution of the state’s monetary monopoly from ancient times to the present. The book examines the relationship between political sovereignty, on the one hand, and the issue of fiat paper money and central banking prerogatives on the other. It explores the history of monetary standards, in particular metallic monetary standards. The book details the rather bizarre machinations of the world’s major central bankers during the 1920s. It focuses on a different aspect of the history of the gold standard. The book examines US financial policy since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s. It provides one specific and very important area of financial policy: the use of deposit insurance to protect banks against runs.