ABSTRACT
The period from 1880 to 1914, known as the heyday of the gold standard, was a remarkable one in world economic history. Using terminology, the gold standard is an exchange regime characterized by a fixed exchange rate, free convertibility and perfect capital mobility. The fixed price of gold ensured fixed exchange rates that, in turn, provided a nominal anchor to the international monetary system. Thus, an economy is said to be on the gold standard when its monetary unit's gold content is fixed by law. During the 1850s only two countries adhered to the gold standard — Britain and Portugal — but at its zenith, just before the First World War, it is estimated that 28 states had linked their currencies to gold and a farther 11 were officially on gold. With notable exceptions, research on the gold-standard regime has been devoted to the countries of the core, and much less to peripheral nations.
