Brussels Monetary Conference (1892)

The Academy Palace in Brussels, where the 1892 conference was held

The International Monetary Conference of 1892 was the fourth of a series of international monetary conferences, held in Brussels in November and December 1892. It was chaired by Belgian Senator Georges Montefiore-Levi.^[1]: 203

Overview

Georges Montefiore-Levi (1832–1906), chairman of the conference

Following the adjournment of the Paris Monetary Conference (1881), concerns kept growing that gold was becoming to scarce while the relative price of silver kept eroding, bringing disturbance to the international monetary system.^[1]: 203 After several abortive attempts, the fourth and last of the 19th-century International Monetary Conferences was brought together at Brussels in November 1892 on the invitation of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison.^[2]

In addition to the United States and Belgium, the participing nations were Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, British India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.^{[1]: 203-204} Unlike in previous conferences, Norway had a separate delegation from Sweden's, and India had a separate delegation from the UK's.^{[3]: 377–378} Opening the conference, Belgian Prime Minister Auguste Beernaert referred to the gathering as "the most important conference ever held in Brussels"; it was held in the Marble Hall of the Academy Palace.^[4]

Delay arose from the absence of definite proposals by the United States government. These, when they were presented, proved to be only a reaffirmation of the bimetallic policy, with no advance from prior discussions. The U.S. delegates also suggested considerations of reform plans formulated in the recent past by Moritz Levy (at the 1881 conference) and by recently deceased German academic Adolf Soetbeer.^[1]: 204 At the request of British delegates, the conference also reviewed reforms plans presented by Alfred de Rothschild.^[5]

The conference ended in failure,^[6] adjourning on 17 December 1892 with a call to meet again on 30 May 1893 that remained eventually unheeded.^[1]: 216

At the conference, German academic Julius Wolff submitted a visionary blueprint for an international currency that would be used for emergency lending to national central banks and would be issued by an institution based in a neutral country.^[7]: 21

See also

• International Monetary and Economic Conferences
• Brussels Conference (1920)

Notes

1. Elisha Benjamin Andrews (June 1893), "The Monetary Conference of 1892", Political Science Quarterly (8:2): 197–219
2. Walker, Francis A. (1896). International Bimetallism. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 224. Retrieved 12 June 2018 – via Internet Archive.
3. Henry B. Russell (1898), International Monetary Conferences: Their Purposes, Character and Results, with a Study of the Conditions of Currency and Finance in Europe and America during Intervening Periods, and in their Relation to International Action, New York: Harper & Brothers – via Internet Archive
4. "Welcomed to Brussels; Formal Opening of the International Conference". New York Times. 23 November 1892.
5. "The Rothschild Plan; English Delegates Desire to Have It Debated". New York Times. 5 December 1892.
6. Johannes Wiegand (March 2023), "Gold, Silver, and Monetary Stability", Finance & Development, International Monetary Fund
7. Gianni Toniolo (2005). Central Bank Cooperation at the Bank for International Settlements, 1930-1973. Cambridge University Press.