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Andrej Pančur In expectation of a stabile monetary system Historical association Celje, Zgodovini ⋅ce 1, Celje 2003, 315 pages.
The Slovene historiography was enriched by the work of dr. Andrej Pančur at the end of 2003 - scientific co-worker of the Institute for Contemporary History in Ljubljana. The book In expectation of a stabile monetary system, published by the Historical association Celje as a first in the form of a new collection, funny named Zgodovini-ce is a ’’slightly reworked doctoral dissertation’’ (page 12) entitled Monetary policy in the Habsburg Monarchy and the Slovenes (1848-1914), which was successfully presented by the author at the Department for history at the Philosophical Faculty in Ljubljana in April 2002. In his book dr. Pančur describes financial situation in Slovenian area in the 19th century in terms of a broad Austrian monetary or financial policy. The Austrian monarchy has witnessed many ups and downs regarding financial situation. The last episode of difficulties started with the revolutionary year 1848 – where the author begins his story and continues it through the break of the century until the First World War. In order to be able to understand the events of that time and the events of the later years, it is necessary to know the monetary history of the previous period. Therefore, he introduced the Austrian monetary system in great detail in decades before the revolution in 1848. From 1753 when Austria signed the contract with Bavaria in terms of an international monetary arrangement (convention), the value of Austrian money in the Habsburg Monarchy was based on the silver. Thus Austria had a silver currency. In addition to silver coins there was also state paper money in circulation which was issued by the state at the beginning mainly in cases of war and the state also covered the war expenses with it. This money was not a legal means of payment, a legal means of payment was a currency of a convention. Its nominal value was conditioned by the florins of a convention. After the Napoleon wars, the paper money, issued by the Austrian National Bank- founded in 1816, came in circulation as a legal means of payment and it was possible to exchange it for silver. This paper money was covered by the state which provided the bank with sufficient quantity of silver and thus covered the value of issued convertible banknotes. The changes which the Austrian monetary system witnessed after the March revolution are the main issue of the continuation and consequence of the global crisis which the Austrian Monarchy was forced to overcome. It tried to improve the monetary system with various reforms, yet none of them proved to be successful. Lasting na-
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