"Money and Politics reconstructs for the first time the full history of the creation of the Latin Monetary Union (LMU), a long forgotten precedent of the Euro. It focuses in particular on the attempted transformation of the LMU into a European Monetary Union between 1865 and 1873. The use of extensive diplomatic and banking archives in France, Britain, Italy, and Germany has enabled the author to reconstruct in detail the intellectual debate concerning the gold standard and bimetallism, as well as the surrounding political and diplomatic manoeuvres, which in many ways anticipated the conflicts of today's monetary unification." "This book is written in an accessible and multi-disciplinary fashion, and will appeal to economists, historians, and political scientists with an interest in the formation and readjustment of government policies. It also paints a fascinating picture for policymakers and all those concerned with current debates surrounding EMU and the British position."--BOOK JACKET.