a means of fostering national economic integration. the objective was twofold : to establish the boundaries of the domestic market, and to face up to competition from international currencies such as the florin or ducat. currencies were also used for their symbolic value, to forge a sense of national unity and serve as a medium to convey national imagery. it was in this context of the joint assertion of monetary and national sovereignty that central banks were created between the 17th and 20th centuries. ii their history was strongly influenced by respective national experiences : some, such as the bank of england ( 1694 ), were created to meet the state ’ s financing needs ; others, such as the bank of the estates of the realm in sweden ( 1668 ), were set up to facilitate payments. the banque de france, for its part, was founded in 1800 under the consulate – just a few weeks after the council of state... – as part of a much vaster initiative to build france ’ s institutions, the “ granite blocks ” capable of unifying the “ grains of sand ” of the nation. created as an autonomous institution, albeit allied to the government, the banque de france was granted a monopoly over banknote issuance ( 1803, 1848 ) and helped to consolidate national unity throughout france, notably by developing its network of branches. in general, central bank functions converged from the 19th century onwards, and the institutions gradually took on their modern role : as operators of monetary policy, managers of payment systems and guarantors of financial stability... but not, lest it need repeating, as lenders to the state. as a result of this historical heritage, a very “ westphalian ” iii understanding of monetary sovereignty persists, whereby money issuance and monetary policy management are sovereign privileges, managed by nation states. it is at this point that i would like to look at two potential contemporary metamorphoses. a ) the euro, a currency without a state... or the beginning of european sovereignty? for the westphalian vision, the european monetary union advocated notably by francois mitterrand and helmut kohl as of 1989 - 90, clearly constituted a page 3 of 6 major upheaval that would lead purely and simply to a loss of sovereignty for member states. the founding fathers of the euro responded by saying that states could choose whether or not to have greater effective sovereignty, and i shall quote jacques delors here : “ it is in sharing

mandate, that of maintaining price stability, set by the european treaties ix and ratified in france by the 1992 referendum. the ecb has defined this mandate precisely, and refined its definition in 2021 in its strategic review : maintaining inflation at 2 % over the medium term. with the resurgence of inflation in 2022, the ecb raised its key rates accordingly : the remedy is not always pleasant, but it is efficient ; inflation is coming down again and was at 2. 9 % in october, and we are confident that we can bring it back towards the 2 % target by 2025. ( ii ) an ex post condition : the essential counterpart to independence is that we be held accountable by elected representatives and the general public for the fulfilment of this mandate. the ecb is regularly questioned by members of the european parliament, as is the banque de france by the national assembly and the senate. we are constantly expanding our communication with the general public, for example with our annual monetary policy forums, which we hold in all of france ’ s regions. monetary policy can seem austere, it does not need to be opaque. if we had not achieved results on our mandate, if we did not know how to report on it to our citizens, then our independence would lose its very meaning. fortunately this is far from being the case : the eurosystem ’ s results over the long term have allowed the euro to benefit from a very high level of trust ( 78 % x ) – which has increased steadily over the past 20 years – among the 350 million europeans who share it as their currency. ii. public and private money page 5 of 6 i would now like to come back and look at sovereignty from another angle, that of the relationship between public and private money. this distinction is rarely perceived by the general public, yet it is as old as money itself : in the words of fernand braudel, " every exchange of goods has an instant monetary echo. a commodity that is more in demand or more abundant plays the role of a currency. " xi similarly, bills traded between merchants at fairs during the middle ages were used as private payment instruments xii and they were at the origin of early bank lending, particularly by bankers from lombardy. however, since then, the gradual introduction of " public " central bank money as a common and secure settlement asset has become the rule. it is now considered a public good and more or less taken for granted, at least in advanced economies.