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Dr Robert A. Mundell's Nobel Lecture: "A Reconsideration of the 20th Century" (53 min.)
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Interview with Dr Robert A. Mundell, December 1999 (Hosted by the Nobel Foundation)


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Mundell-Friedman
Nobel Monetary Duel (pdf)

History of the International Monetary System
We mustn't be misled by the textbook fiction that coins were first struck to guarantee the weight, and therefore the value, of the earliest coins. There is no point stamping the weight on a lump of electrum metal if the fineness of the alloy is neither known nor constant; in fact the electrum coins from the early hoards varied widely in fineness. The earliest coins were not the natural electrum found in the beds of the Patroclus River near Sardis, but artificial electrum made by a metallurgical technique that had been pioneered by the Egyptians over a thousand years earlier and which was well known to such monarchs of the Mernmad line like Gyges, Alyattes and Croesus. The conventional wisdom that these Oriental despots stamped the coins to confirm their weight and thus provide a convenience for their subjects, is sheer nonsense. The stamp meant that the coins passed ad talum--by their face value--equal to 1/3 of a stater (the word meant "standard").
RAM 		 

"The earliest function of coinage was profit. Accepted at face value as if they had a high gold content, the Lydian staters started out with a high proportion of gold but got progressively smaller, increasing the markup and the revenue for the fiscal authorities"
RAM
 

Related articles by Robert A. Mundell:
 


Constantine, Mahomet and Charlemagne ▪ 2001

Published in:

Zagreb Journal of Economics


Threat to Prosperity ▪ March ▪ 2000

Published in:

Wall Street Journal , 30


The Roman Monetary System ▪ 2000

Published in:

Zagreb Journal of Economics


The Birth of Coinage ▪ 1999

Published in:

Zagreb Journal of Economics

43 pages


Uses and Abuses of Gresham's Law in the History of Money ▪ 1998

Published in:

Zagreb Journal of Economics , Volume 2, No. 2

30 pages - free download Help


Great Expectations for the Euro, Part II ▪ May ▪ 1998

Published in:

Wall Street Journal


Making the Euro Work ▪ April ▪ 1998

Published in:

Wall Street Journal


Great Expectations for the Euro, Part I ▪ May ▪ 1998

Published in:

Wall Street Journal


Jacques Rueff and the International Monetary System ▪ 1997

Origin :

Proceedings of a colloquium held on the centenary of the birth of Jacques Rueff, November 7 1996, Paris

Published in:

Actualité de la pensée de Jacques RueffParis


Updating the Agenda for Monetary Reform ▪ 1997

Origin :

Proceedings of a Festschrift Conference Sponsored by the IMF, the Central Bank of Israel, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University in honor of R. A. Mundell

Published in:

Optimum Currency AreasWashington, DC: International Monetary Fund , 29-48.

Edited by:

Mario I. Blejer, Jacob A. Frenkel, Leonardo Leiderman, and Assaf Razin in cooperation with David M. Cheneyt

20 pages - free download Help


The European Monetary System 50 Years after Bretton Woods: A Comparison Between Two Systems ▪ 1997

23 pages - free download Help


The Future of the Exchange Rate System ▪ 1995

Published in:

Economic Notes , 26, no. 3,35-66


The Monetary Consequences of Jacques Rueff ▪ June ▪ 1973

Published in:

Journal of Business


The Future of the International Financial System ▪ 1972

Published in:

Bretton Woods RevisitedToronto: University of Toronto Press , 91-104

Edited by:

A. Acheson, J. Chant, M. Prachowny


The Collapse of the Gold Standard ▪ December ▪ 1968

Published in:

American Journal of Agricultural Economics , vol.50, No. 5


Una Revision del Siglo XX

Origin :

Nobel Lecture in Spanish

23 pages


Money and the Sovereignty of the State

Origin :

Paper prepared for the International Economic Association Conference in Trento, September 4-7, 1997

Edited by:

Axel Leijonhufvud