Into the Global Monetary System: Past Developments and Future Scenarios

Abstract

Money as an “idea”, as a category of Political Economy, has played a huge role in the historical processes of Globalization. It was Monetary Globalization, namely the spread of the cash nexus from the Kingdom of Lydia throughout the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India and China, Europe, Africa and, finally, the Americas, that created a single Network of Economic Relations comparable to the spread of language and writing, actually making inter-human communication possible. On the other hand, Globalization itself has also affected the Nature of Money and its functions, ultimately putting on the agenda the emergence of Global Money. Generally speaking, Future Global Money as an element of the World Economic Order is directly dependent on where and how the process of Globalization will return in the coming years after a period – the current one – often portrayed as “de-globalization”. And from how – peacefully or through military means – such a turn will be made. Thus, the issue of the future of the Global Monetary System is divided into two components: 1) what will be global money by its essence (actually, Global Money) and 2) in what specific form it will operate (Global Currency). In this article, after analysing those scholarlarly accounts that foster a return to form of “gold standars”, we will focus on (i) the latest developments of money exhancges, and (ii) the issue of Global Money. Past and present developments are fundamental stesps in order to understand possible future scenario of the Monetary System.