Hi!
I read that the pre-EU had a currency unit, ECU, that wasn’t a real currency but more like a instrument of measurement. I just can make it make sense in my head.
In: 2
For most of its life, the ECU was intended as a way of understanding the relationship between different European currencies.
You can think of those currencies like marks given to the students in a class, and the ECU like an average mark. It was considered helpful to understand how individual students’ marks related to the average, because the European Economic Community (the school) wanted to (1) monitor overall performance – how European currencies compared internationally (2) monitor how marks (currencies) affected each other and (3) try to moderate the class – reduce any big swings in the strength of individual currencies.
During this time, the end goal was not necessarily a single European currency (what would eventually be the Euro) but in a monetary sense, the purpose was always standardisation.
Latest Answers