Reconstructing Europe's Trade and Payments: The European Payments Union

The European Payments Union is generally perceived as having been a critical step toward the reconstruction of free international trade and payments following World War II. The success with which the countries of what became the European Community restored economic stability and rebuilt their international transactions in the 1950s led many to recommend an EPU-like arrangement for the independent states of the former Soviet Union. This book presents an historical assessment of post-World War II Western European experience for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It identifies critical problems with attempting to apply the EPU model to those parts of the world today.