Monetary organization and national identity: a review and considerations

ABSTRACT

This article develops a detailed overview of literature on the relationship between monetary organization, understood as currencies and central banks, and issues of national identity and nationalism. It demonstrates how the literature on this subject for the past 20 years has developed into a distinct research field and the article sketches a set of different methodological approaches as well as geographical and thematical variations within the field. In particular, the overview points to a recent shift in focus from a preoccupation with the identity-cultivating qualities of monetary organization to an emphasis on how collective identities legitimize monetary organization. Based on the literature review, the article points to two underdeveloped themes for future research to investigate: (1) further studies on the interrelation between the legitimacy of monetary organization and national identity, (2) an increased focus on central banks and monetary authorities, as well as the historical development in which monetary organization evolved in concert with ideas of the national identity and nationalism.

KEYWORDS:

• National identity
• legitimacy
• money
• central banks
• nationalism; currencies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In a recent article in this journal, Papadopoulos (2015) developed a very similar argument and described currency iconography as a way to secure money's authority and legitimacy. Papadopoulos mentioned, among others, Hymans (2010) for ignoring the economic function of currency iconography. In doing so, Papadopoulos fundamentally overlooked most of the above-mentioned literature, most importantly Hymans (2004) who explicitly rejected the ‘state as pedagogue perspective’ and instead suggested that the historical, visual imagery on European banknotes was a matter of securing the legitimacy of the notes.

2. One of the reasons for this similar iconography was that nineteenth- and twentieth-century note-issuing authorities often subcontracted note production to a small number of private firms who worked from broad iconographic templates that were used for different countries (Helleiner 2003, 103).

3. Whereas central banks control the circulation and production of banknotes, in many countries the issue of coins has historically rested with national mints outside central bank control. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, notes in circulation often included private banknotes and currency notes issued by treasuries. This was particularly true in the USA; in the first part of the nineteenth century, the USA had a veritable plethora of different privately issued banknotes.

4. Note that Mihm speaks of the federal government and not of the central bank.