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GUIDO MONTANI

This paper examines some international aspects of Ricardo’s economic theory. The theory of comparative costs is considered a special case of a more general theory of economic integration, showing that the final stage of economic integration, when capital and workers freely circulate in the global market, is a world economic union. Ricardo worked out also a theory of the international gold standard. He came to the conclusion that, when banknotes circulate alongside gold, the central bank should be entrusted to a public agency, independent of national power and with a precise target for the issue of banknotes. These “cosmopolitan” positions suggest that in the present international economy, a world governance capable of guaranteeing monetary stability and free trade should be entrusted to supranational institutions, similar to those existing in the European Union.