The International Monetary Conference of 1881 was the third of a series of

international monetary conferences The international monetary conferences were a series of assemblies held in the second half of the 19th century. They were held with a view to reaching agreement on matters relating to international relationships between national currency systems. B ...

, convened in Paris on and adjourned in July of that year. Like the previous iteration in 1878, it failed to achieve a cooperative outcome.

Overview

Due to the continuing fall in the value of silver, the conference was convened jointly by France and the United States. The previous conference in 1878 had been attended by delegates from Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden (jointly with Norway), Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1881, five additional nations sent delegates: Denmark, Germany, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, making 15 participating nations in total. The 1881 conference was chaired by French finance minister

Pierre Magnin Pierre Magnin (1 January 1824 – 22 November 1910) was a French politician of the Second French Empire and French Third Republic. He was born in Dijon, France. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of France from 1863 to 1870. He was a memb ...

. At the conference France and the United States gave stronger support to the proposal to restore

bimetallism Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange betwee ...

, while the delegates of the smaller European countries were opposed, and Germany refused to promise any cooperation. The conference was therefore adjourned to obtain fresh instructions; but these were never furnished. The conference therefore did not reconvene in April 1882 as envisaged.

Notes

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

19th-century diplomatic conferences 1881 conferences 1881 in France Diplomatic conferences in France Gold standard Global economic conferences Economic history of Paris {{Econ-hist-stub

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