Free international trade was supposed to open countries up and create prosperity, and democracy and Western values would then find their way in. The US Marshall Plan marked the beginnings of this policy, as we Icelanders know from our own experience. In past decades, almost all countries  were invited to enter into commercial cooperation even if they did not satisfy Western human rights criteria – and even if they had plenty on their conscience. The invisible hand would lead them in the right direction. The end of the Cold War after 1990 was considered virtually a total victory for this policy. There was an awakening of optimism that globalisation would guarantee world peace because war was so costly. This was best encapsulated in the Golden Arches Theory propounded in 1996 by columnist Thomas Friedman, who noted that no two countries would go to war with one another if both had McDonald’s franchises. But the Golden Arches Theory was debunked a mere three years later when NATO began bombing Serbia, where McDonald’s had opened in 1988. I went to the US to study for my doctoral degree in 1995, when optimism was at its high-water mark and the reigning belief was that we economists could solve the problems of the world with the help of the invisible hand. Many people probably have difficulty envisioning economists as idealists, given that the field is well known as the dismal science and has often been criticised for callousness and materialism.
Many approaches were tried, some proved their worth, while others were abandoned. The establishment of these monetary institutions was not a constant reinvention of the wheel; rather, progress was evident. The sound institutions that have grown in this way represent valuable capital for our country and have made a significant contribution to Switzerland’s prosperity. I feel that it behoves us to become familiar with the history of our monetary and currency institutions. This is true not just for the employees of the SNB, but in particular for them. In fact, this was the original idea behind Professor Baltensperger’s book, namely to improve employees’ knowledge of Switzerland’s economic history. Or, expressed in a different way: To encourage them to “become familiar with the ground on which we lay our foundations”. On the initiative of the former Chairman of the Board, Jean-Pierre Roth, an internal seminar on the history of the Swiss currency in the 19th and 20th centuries was organised in the autumn of 2008 and in the spring of 2009. It became clear that no work yet existed which covered the entire period of the history of the Swiss franc. It was this realisation that laid the foundation for this book. The book was ultimately written by expanding on the material derived from the internal seminar. As you will be able to conclude for yourself after reading the work, the result can certainly be considered a resounding success. The book by Professor Baltensperger is a beautifully illustrated work with fascinating contents.