INTERNATIONAL CURRENCIES FROM TETRADRACHM TO EURO - PART TWO: BYZANTINE SOLIDUS AND POUND STERLING

Original scientific paper
Autor: Prof. dr Biljana Stojanović
JEL: B11, F31, P52

Summary: History of the Byzantine solidus and of the pound sterling shows that the same factors that have rendered currencies used in the antiquity to assume the role of the world money, have induced globalisation of these two currencies. Primarily, they were the growth of economy and of exports, fiscal equilibrium and centralisation of their issuance held in the hands of the state personified in imperial or royal rule that was legally prescribing and sanctioning currency stability. Both of these currencies lost their stability due to the social processes that have undermined fiscal equilibrium - in the case of the Byzantine solidus because of the feudalisation process, and in the case of pound sterling because of the outbreak of the First World War.

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