One hundred years of solitude
Exit from gold standard initiates period of maximum divergence until currency and budgetary stabilization in 1925-26 an failed attempt to return to convertibility in 1931 (“last to join”)
Inconvertibility and stability against the pound and then the dollar continued for four decades and proved a “blessing in disguise” during the postwar European integration boom
Association with EPU (1948), EFTA (1960) and association with EC (1972) crucial for economy not society, polity.
Oil, 25 April and the IMF shook inheritance of stability, brought external pressure for adjustment but did not change fiscal constitution all that much.