Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here today in order to contribute to the debate on the challenges that Italian and European enterprises are currently facing with respect to increasing global competition. To enhance competition, trade and ultimately welfare, about 140 years ago Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland gave birth to the Latin Monetary Union.
This monetary union was based on the mutual acceptance of each other’s gold and silver coins. That experiment failed. After a long period of strong fluctuations in the relative values of gold and silver, combined with high macroeconomic instability across the member countries, the Latin Monetary Union was finally dismantled by the end of World War I.