EH.N: ANN: South-Eastern European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN): Publication of Historical Data

[Matthias Morys]

The South-Eastern European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN) 
announces the first publication of financial data and monetary 
indicators for the South-East European countries from independence to 
World War I. At this stage, the data series include exchange-rates, 
discount rates, reserves and the monetary base. The data, as well as 
a description of the monetary system, the coinage legislation and the 
bank of note issue of the countries involved (Albania, Austria, 
Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia), can be found in the appendix 
(pp. 387-447) of the Conference Proceedings of the Second Annual 
Conference of the South-Eastern European Monetary History Network, 
published recently by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian 
National Bank). It can be accessed online at:

http://www.oenb.at/de/img/workshop_13_internet_tcm14-80904.pdf

The South-Eastern European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN) is an 
initiative bringing together the central banks between Vienna and 
Ankara and academics in an effort to improve understanding of 
South-East European financial, monetary and economic history from the 
19th century to the present day. The main goal of the initiative is 
to make financial and monetary data available for the first time to 
outside researchers, as well as host annual conferences.

This publication is the first result of the data collection efforts. 
Contributors for the individual central banks are: Kelmend Rexha and 
Elsida Orhan (Bank of Albania), Thomas Scheiber (Austrian National 
Bank), Kalina Dimitrova and Martin Ivanov (Bulgarian National Bank 
and Bulgarian Academy of Science), Sophia Lazaretou (Bank of Greece), 
George Virgil Stoenescu, Elisabeta Blejan, Brindusa Costache and 
Adriana Iarovici (National Bank of Romania) and Milan Sojic, Ljiljana 
Durdevic, Sanja Borkovic and Olivera Jovanovic (National Bank of 
Serbia). The introduction is written by Dr Matthias Morys (University 
of Oxford) in which the exchange-rate experience, the coinage 
legislation and the structure of the banks of note issue are compared 
with each other and put into the pre-World War I European context.

The same data will be made available on a monthly basis in a 
forthcoming Working Paper by the Bank of Greece. In addition to the 
individual contributions, this Working Paper will also feature a 
foreword written by Prof. Michael Bordo (Rutgers University) who was 
this year's keynote speaker at the Third Annual Conference held in 
Athens and organized by the Bank of Greece.

A much larger data set for the South-Eastern European countries is 
envisaged for 2009 to be included in a joint publication of the 
Austrian National Bank, the Bank of Greece, and the Bulgarian 
National Bank. This data set will cover the period from independence 
to World War II and will contain financial and monetary data as well 
as real economic data.