This important contribution to comparative economic history examines different countries' experiences with different monetary regimes, laying particular emphasis on how the regimes fared when placed under stress such as wars or other changes in the economic environment. Covering the experience of ten countries over the period 1700-1990, the contributors employ the latest techniques of economic analysis in their studies. Several papers are concerned with the transformation from bimetallism to gold monometallism in the nineteenth century and the determinants of monetary regimes transformation in the core countries of Britain, France and the United States. Others focus on the successful and unsuccessful gold standard experiences of Canada, Australia, and Spain, while yet others examine the experience of wartime and postwar stabilizations surrounding the two World Wars and the Napoleonic War.