Re: CHAT: San Marino

Padraic Brown wrote:

> >No, what Ecuador did, and what Argentina and actually a goodly number
> >of other countries have already done, is to use the US dollar as their reserve
> >currency, in exactly the same way as the US used to use gold bars.  For every
>
> This is not my understanding.
Yeah, you're right, I'm wrong.  After I sent that last email, I checked up on
some old articles I had read.  Apparently, they *had* been discussing going
the way of Argentina and Hong Kong, but I had misremembered this as
not going the whole way, when they in fact did later dollarize their
economy, like Panama.  I do believe, though, that it was only a partial dollarization.
There are sucres still in use;  they are just the smallest denominations.

> >So, that was what I was asking about San Marino.  I had assumed that since
> >San Marino is so very small, that they didn't even bother to print their own
> >currency, with "San Marino" printed on it and all, and then peg it to the Italian
> >lira.  It seemed much easier for me to see them using Italian liras outright.
>
> Right. Different situation; and I don't know the specifics. They do
> mint their own coins, though who knows how much they circulate.
Well, they haven't entirely "lirafied" yet, then.  But surely, the Vatican has, right?
I mean, they have about 1000 permanent inhabitants!

> It'd be "easier" if everyone just used US dollars! ;) What about
> national pride? Sovereignty issues?
Yes, but saying that a nation the size of San Marino will overlook
economic advantages for the sake of national pride is, I think, unlikely,
considering that virtually every other facet of their economy, political
system, and culture is intimately linked to Italy.  I mean, we're not
talking about France or Germany here, where the population runs
into the tens millions of inhabitants, and where they as a country are
far more selfsufficient than San Marino is.

> The fact that they've been around some 1700 years?
I read somewhere, and cannot remember the source, that this was completely
a myth. You know, like the Donation of Constantine, to justify a landclaim
after the fact.

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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