TThis paper explains the process by which the Bank of Spain became a national bank, first by obtaining the monopoly of issue in 1874 and then by extending its sphere of financial action by creating the country's only network of bank branches before 1900. The implementation of a "unified or...

The gold standard began to emerge as a universal monetary system in the late 1870s, and it had spread throughout the world economy by 1900. It was unusual for nations to be off the gold standard, and it meant that they were detached from the international financial community. Spain never joined...