A Proposal for a "European Currency " in 1861: The Forgotten Contribution of Carlos Morato Roma
In 1861, the Portuguese politician, publicist and businessman Carlos Morato Roma published a book on monetary themes, in which he defended the creation of a ‘European currency’. Although the book was translated into French and reviewed in the Journal des Economistes, Morato Roma’s proposal has largely been ignored by the extremely vast literature dedicated to the study of the reforms of the European monetary system during the 1860s. This paper seeks to characterise and contextualise the significance of the Portuguese author’s proposal, taking into account contemporary debates on the gold standard, bimetallism and the creation of a universal currency.