Un sistema imperfetto: il Gold Standard e i suoi critici (1870-1914)

This paper examines the debate on the gold standard from 1870 to 1914. In this period the gold standard becomes the world’s monetary regime, but this political success is disputed by a considerable part of the coeval economic theory. The different critical positions showed the imperfections of the gold standard and the critical economists proposed several solutions. The most radical solutions wished a return to the bimetallic regime or the adoption of experimental system, like the symmetallism proposed by Marshall. Other critical positions were direct towards attempts of reforms, which leaded to the definition of the principles of the gold exchange standard, destined later on to regulate, without success, the international monetary regime after the World War One, and then to be reproposed at the Bretton Woods Conference and to become the basis of a long period of monetary stability.