Unificarea sistemului monetar naţional după Marea Unire (1918-1921)

  • Subiect: After the First World War, in Romania there were in circulation: the ,,leu’’ issued by the National Bank of Romania, the ,,leu’’ of war issued during the German occupation through the Romanian General Bank, the crown of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, the Romanov ruble and the Lwow ruble. In Transylvania, the exchange of goods and peoples, as well as the entry of the Romanian army, will cause the ,,leu’’ to spread in the form of banknotes issued by the National Bank of Romania or by the Romanian General Bank. At the same time, large quantities of Austro-Hungarian crowns will also penetrate the territory, as well as the "white money" emitted by the Karoly Mihaly government. Crowns that had a nominal value of 25 and 200 issued by the Karoly Mihaly government were not recognized by the Austro-Hungarian Bank. They did not have the power of movement in Transylvania either. The stamping of Austro-Hungarian crowns that were in circulation on the territory of Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina took place between 10th of June and 28th of August 1919. The tickets issued were 10 crowns, 20 crowns, 50 crowns, 100 crowns and 1000 crowns. Banknotes denominated in nominal value of 1 and 2 crowns remained unmarked, but they still had circulatory power. Only undamaged banknotes and those that did not have stamps applied by other states were stamped. Stamping was done with rudimentary means, so often the stamps were unclear or washed. The stamp could easily be erased during circulation, therefore the stamped tickets could no longer be distinguished from the unmarked ones. The stamps could easily be faked on some banknotes, using hand-made stamps or even hand-made designs. For these reasons, stamping did not stop counterfeit banknotes. The stamped crowns had power only if circulated on the territories united in 1918. The leu-crown exchange took place at various official courses, either at the course of the market. In Transylvania and Bucovina, the course was set at 1 leu = 2 crowns as early as the entry of the Romanian army and remained the same after stamping, even if this course did not have a real economic basis. This course was compulsory only for the population of Transylvania and Bucovina, while in the rest of the territory there were fluctuations depending on demand and supply from the stock exchange. The crown change began on the 1st of September, and the change of the rubles on the 28th September, and the BGR banknotes on the 1st of November 1920. For a 10,000 crown banknote, a special changeover regime was attempted. Following stamping, it was found that there were 3,5 billion crowns on the market, although the estimated initial quantity was 1,5 billion, so that at the exchange, 8,7 billion crowns would be withdrawn from circulation, with more than 5 billion more than the amount stamped, meaning that over 7 billion crowns were fraudulently introduced between 1 December 1918 - 1 September 1920 (for the sum of 8,718,587,304 crowns, the Romanian state paid 4,353,743,808 lei and for the other monetary forms withdrawn, the difference up to 7,025,991,421 lei, 1,463,546,396 lei for the BGR tickets and 1,208,701,217 lei for the Romanov and Lwov rubles). Through monetary unification the „leu” will circulate throughout the territory of Great Romania, and the circulation of other monetary forms ceases. The delay of this action has, however, caused major damage to the population and to the country's budget. The high exchange rate of the crown and the introduction of large quantities of counterfeit foreign banknotes for speculative purposes led to rising inflation and the depreciation of the „leu”.
  • Limba de redactare: română
  • Vezi publicația: Acta Moldaviae Meridionalis: ActaMM
  • Editura: Pim
  • Loc publicare: Iaşi
  • Anul publicaţiei: 2017
  • Referinţă bibliografică pentru nr. revistă: XXXVIII; anul 2017
  • Paginaţia: 122-141
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