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The gold standard began to emerge as a universal monetary system in the late 1870s, and it had spread throughout the world economy by 1900. It was unusual for nations to be off the gold standard, and it meant that they were detached from the international financial community. Spain never joined the gold standard club in any of its varieties, either before or after 1914. Unlike the vast majority of the European currencies, the peseta’s exchange rate fluctuated, sometimes widely, against gold and gold currencies. Gold convertibility was suspended in 1883 and never resumed. Nevertheless, the monetary authorities were aware that the Spanish economy, off the gold standard, was an outlier in the international economy and made plans to put the peseta on gold both before and after 1914.Why Spain never adopted the gold standard is a complex issue, and our paper offers a possible answer by examining the behaviour of an issuing bank that refused to accept, or resisted, its role as a central bank. Our study also provides a basis for a comparison between the Bank of Spain, some of its features and policies, with other peripheral issuing institutions. Moreover, our paper encompasses both the pre-war and the post-war periods, which allows us to present both the similarities and the differences in the exchange and monetary policies of the Spanish authorities during the era of the classical gold standard and the years of the gold exchange standard

The gold standard began to emerge as a universal monetary system in the late 1870s, and it had spread throughout the world economy by 1900. It was unusual for nations to be off the gold standard, and it meant that they were detached from the international financial community. Spain never joined the gold standard club in any of its varieties, either before or after 1914. Unlike the vast majority of the European currencies, the peseta’s exchange rate fluctuated, sometimes widely, against gold and gold currencies. Gold convertibility was suspended in 1883 and never resumed. Nevertheless, the monetary authorities were aware that the Spanish economy, off the gold standard, was an outlier in the international economy and made plans to put the peseta on gold both before and after 1914.Why Spain never adopted the gold standard is a complex issue, and our paper offers a possible answer by examining the behaviour of an issuing bank that refused to accept, or resisted, its role as a central bank. Our study also provides a basis for a comparison between the Bank of Spain, some of its features and policies, with other peripheral issuing institutions. Moreover, our paper encompasses both the pre-war and the post-war periods, which allows us to present both the similarities and the differences in the exchange and monetary policies of the Spanish authorities during the era of the classical gold standard and the years of the gold exchange standard

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El trabajo presenta una nueva reconstrucción de las balanzas de pagos del periodo autárquico (1940-1958). El uso de fuentes complementarias y nuevos métodos para el tratamiento de los datos da como resultado una mejor aproximación a la realidad del sector exterior español. Entre los resultados más significativos se pueden destacar la cuantificación de aspectos ya conocidos, sobre los que se carecía de datos, como el alcance de la crisis del sector exterior ante el Plan de Estabilización, o la confirmación de algunas de las hipótesis presentes en la bibliografía sobre el periodo, por ejemplo, d creciente volumen del déficit comercial durante el decenio de los cincuenta o la significación de los flujos financieros de Argentina y EE.UU. para la economía española.

Este volumen incluye las ponencias del coloquio «100 años de la Ley de Ordenación Bancaria de 1921», celebrado el 19 de noviembre de 2021 en la sede del Banco de España en Madrid. Presentación / Pablo Martín-Aceña y Elena Martínez Ruiz -- La economía española durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y la inmediata posguerra (1914-1923) / Pablo Martín-Aceña -- Francesc Cambó en la crisis de la monarquía de la Restauración / Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo -- La Ley de Ordenación Bancaria de 1921 y la regulación del sistema bancario / María A. Pons -- El tránsito del Banco de España hacia un banco central / Elena Martínez Ruiz -- El impacto de la Ley de Ordenación Bancaria en la supervisión bancaria actual / Mercedes Olano.