1. Introduction to the German Monetary System
Trade and monetary system are two sides and support each other. International Trade is also a monetary phenomenon to some extent. Without a good monetary system, it is difficult to support the long-term, normal and healthy development of a country's foreign trade for a long time. In economic development, Germany pays great attention to the improvement of the monetary system, such as maintaining the stability of the German Mark's currency value, balanced internationalization, and supporting the establishment of the euro and the euro zone. The establishment of the euro zone, at least so far, is very conducive to the strengthening of Germany's industrial center and trade status in Europe. Political economy emphasizes that the process of internationalization of monetary is a reconstruction of the wealth distribution pattern between countries, and is essentially a process of competition, restriction and possession of "international monetary power" between countries, especially major countries.
It should be said that compared with the United Kingdom, Japan and France, Germany's political and economic environment is worse, and the rise of German currency is even more difficult. But the German Mark achieved this and was more successful than several other countries. The reasons are both external causes and conditions and the natural development of internal logic.
The repeated US dollar crisis in the 1960s and 1970s and the resulting international monetary system brought opportunities for the internationalization of German currency, especially the "big inflation" caused by the United States' overly confident foreign monetary policy in the 1970s, which led to serious confrontation between Europe and the United States. Germany seized this opportunity to jointly establish the European monetary system under the leadership of Mark outside the US dollar system. This policy choice provided institutional guarantees and political legitimacy for the promotion of the internationalization of German Mark. It was this institutional arrangement that allowed Mark's internationalization to far exceed the normal "market speed", which could quickly replace the US dollar and become the dominant currency in Europe.
Mark's success during this period was largely due to his hiding in the conflict between France and the United States, and he was able to "go into the gap with nothing, and there is room for ease." Of course, objectively speaking, because Germany was weaker than France and Britain at that time, it was a defeated country in World War II , and was at the forefront of the confrontation between the two major camps of the United States and the Soviet Union, it was not convenient to directly form a fierce conflict with the United States. On the other hand, because of such a unique strategic position, the United States does not want to overstimulate and suppress Germany. Objective reasons and subjective efforts determined that Mark would take off quickly "stand on the wind" during this period and achieved great success.
On January 1, 1999, the EU countries began to implement the euro, a single currency, and implemented a unified monetary policy in countries that implemented the euro. Starting from July 1, 2002, the euro has become the only legal currency in the euro zone. The eurozone has 19 member states, including Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands , Belgium , Luxembourg , Ireland , Spain, Portugal, Austria , Finland , Lithuania , Latvia , Estonia , Slovak , Slovenia , Greek , Malta , Cyprus , Cyprus , with a population of more than 330 million.
Euro
In the political process of the euro, the common currency, replacing European nationalities countries' respective sovereign currencies, the biggest winner is Germany. Although it seems to have lost a lot of money to abandon Mark, which is already the world's second largest reserve currency, it has acquired the essentially most valuable power within the EU - international monetary power, a kind of influence and dominance over the actions of other member states. The German Mark did not disappear, but was covered with the coat of "Euro". The euro is essentially an "upgraded version" of Mark's internationalization. Therefore, for Germany, the euro is no longer a currency imposed by external forces, but a symbol of its growth and expansion of interests.
During the response to the European debt crisis, Germany launched a "Euro defense war" to safeguard its core national interests. Germany's "Euro Defense War" is the key to the final escape from the euro zone's disintegration. Germany's policy adjustments at different stages of this "Euro Defense War" ultimately determine the trend of the European debt crisis and the future development direction of the euro zone.
However, it is also in this battle of defense that Germany neglected the strategic wisdom of establishing its own interests on the interests of the entire euro zone and Europe, cared too much about safeguarding its short-term interests, and did not take adequate care of the interests of other neighboring countries, objectively harming the interests of the entire EU and the euro zone, which exposed Germany, which was not conducive to Germany's long-term hiding its strength and long-term stable development. Can an exposed Germany withstand external political shocks? This is still an unknown number.
2, summary and outlook
At present, the reason why Germany can be at a core position in Europe also plays an important role in the entire world pattern. In addition to the inherent and fundamental reasons of its strong economy and strong international competitiveness in foreign trade , its geographical location is also worthy of attention.
Germany happened to be in central Europe, which is military disadvantage because it is in the four battles and is attacked from all sides, but this is beneficial to Germany's economic development, laying a geographical foundation for it to exert its trade radiation effect and making it the core of the circular structure. In recent years, Germany has also adapted to its geographical advantages and developed its own foreign trade relations. Judging from the geographical distribution of EU member states, EU internal trade has formed a ring structure with Germany as the core, including three levels: inner ring, central ring and outer ring. By building the above-mentioned national consortium and supranational organizations, Germany effectively eliminated the contradictions and historical grievances with neighboring countries. More importantly, it opened up the international market and promoted the development of Germany's foreign trade.
In addition, there are significant differences in the current foreign trade development between Germany and the United States. The development of the US foreign trade is to open the way with the help of the US dollar. This is because the US dollar is the most important international reserve currency in the world. In addition, the strong military power of the US can ensure the universality of the US dollar. The output of the US dollar is accompanied by financial products dumped by the US on a large scale to the world. In order to ensure the export of US dollar and US dollar derivative financial products, the United States has always had a huge deficit in commodity trade. Unlike the United States, Germany ensures the demand for the German Mark by other countries through a global industrial chain with "Made in Germany" as the core. "Industrial competitiveness + political monetary cooperation institutional arrangement" is the core factor in the success of the German Mark's internationalization path. In the process of Mark's internationalization, Germany's highly competitive modern industrial system provided solid support for Mark's internationalization, allowing Mark to stand out among the many European currencies and become the only currency in the European monetary system with "leadership qualifications".
In other words, the development of the United States' foreign trade is to drive the input of goods with the output of US dollars, while Germany uses the output of goods to drive the output of its own currency. The interests of the United States may be greater, but Germany may be more balanced. In this regard, Germany's development logic is closer to China's development logic and is more worthy of learning from China.
Taking advantage of changes in the international situation, Germany achieved national unity in the 1990s and became the world's third economic power and the second largest trading power. After China achieved catching up, Germany is now the world's fourth economic power and the third largest trading power. In recent years, Germany's economy and trade have maintained a relatively stable growth trend, and even in the face of the world economic and financial crisis, it has shown strong competitiveness.
However, after Trump came to power, he launched an indiscriminate trade war against countries around the world. Germany's dominant industry, the automobile industry, was threatened by high US tariffs. Germany's plan to break the deadlock in external energy supply was also blocked by the United States. In the face of various difficulties, Germany's economy has also experienced a great decline. In the face of new challenges, let us wait and see whether Germany can achieve a new historical breakthrough!
