The Long Twilight of Gold

How a Pivotal Practice Persisted in the Assemblage of Money

Bibliographic Data

ID6269885
AuthorsNicolas Jabko (0000-0001-8028-1946), Sebastian Schmidt (0000-0003-1912-9771), Sebastian M Schmidt (0000-0001-9297-3448)
Year2022
Volume76
Issue3
Pages625-655
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Organization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020818321000461
OpenAlexW4200263661
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited57

Why has gold persisted as a significant reserve asset despite momentous changes in international monetary relations since the collapse of the classical gold standard? IPE theories have little to say about this question. Conventional accounts of international monetary relations depict a succession of discrete monetary regimes characterized by specific power structures or dominant ideas. To explain the continuous importance of gold, we draw on insights from social psychology and new materialist theories. We argue that international monetary relations should be understood as a complex assemblage of material artifacts, institutions, ideas, and practices. For much of its history, this assemblage revolved around the pivotal practice of referencing money to gold. The centrality of gold as experienced by policymakers had important effects. Using archival and other evidence, we document these effects from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference through the transition to floating exchange rates in the mid-1970s; most IPE scholars underestimate the role of gold during this period. Power relations and economic ideas were obviously important, but they contributed little to a fundamental development: the long process of reluctantly coming to terms with the limitations of specie-backed currency, and the progressive and still ongoing decentering of gold in international monetary relations

Assemblage (archaeology · Currency · Devaluation · Economics · Epistemology · International relations · Materialism · Monetary economics · Monetary hegemony · Monetary policy · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Reserve currency · Special drawing rights · History · Law · Natural Resources and Economic Development · Philosophy