This paper inquires into monetary standards, focusing on the characteristics of money instead of the exchange rate regime. The transition from commodity to fiat money, a major break in monetary evolution, has led to international arrangements that represent an application of the competitive...

From the dawn of coined money to just a few decades ago, the monetary system had been linked, directly or indirectly, to a commodity. The age-long dominance of metallism is puzzling because the conventional character of money, or cartalist theory, had already been grasped in the earliest...

The theory of optimum currency areas, suggesting the redrawing of currency areas across countries or splitting of national money into several currencies, is at odds with the one-money-one-country pattern that has dominated monetary history for 26 centuries. This paper puts forward an equilibrium...