mario draghi : the culture of monetary stability from unification to the present day address by mr mario draghi, governor of the bank of italy and chairman of the financial stability board, at the inauguration of the exhibition “ the currency of united italy : from lira to euro ”, palazzo delle esposizioni, rome, 4 april 2011. * * * the bank of italy is making a twofold contribution to the 150th anniversary of the unification of italy. with the collaboration of numerous experts from italy and abroad, it is sponsoring a vast research project – entitled italy and the world economy, 1861 – 2011 – on the italian economy ’ s response to the major changes in the international scenario that have taken place from the birth of the unified state to the present day. the results of this research will be presented at a conference in rome on 13, 14 and 15 october. for the wider public, and particularly for young people, we are inaugurating today the exhibition on the currency of united italy : from lira to euro. the thread that runs through the 150 years of italian monetary history since unification draws together two fundamental events : the country ’ s monetary unification, which the newly formed italy undertook in order to strengthen the foundations of its political unity ; and, closer to our time, italy ’ s participation in european monetary unification, achieved despite the lack of political unity. this story, from the lira to the euro, illustrates a central point for all of us today – the importance of monetary stability and of a political and economic culture that recognizes its value. guido carli suggested a logical path to take. “ if international competition ”, he wrote in 1961, “ is indeed the most powerful incentive towards our country ’ s economic development, there can be no doubt that, in turn, its strongest pillar is monetary stability. this, too, is a lesson handed down to us through a century of italy ’ s – sometimes painful – experiences as a nation state. ” 1 the concept of monetary stability changes with time, alongside the technological and institutional conditions that determine it. between the 19th and 20th centuries, italy, too, switched from a system in which money was made of, or could be converted into, precious metal to one based on purely fiat money. in the first system, monetary stability is ensured by maintaining the gold convertibility of the currency at a fixed parity. by and large, italy managed to do this : on the eve of the first world war, despite some

capital buffer ”, speech by the vice chair for supervision, randal k. quarles, at the program on international financial systems conference, frankfurt, germany, 5 september 2019. european central bank directorate general communications sonnemannstrasse 20, 60314 frankfurt am main, germany tel. : + 49 69 1344 7455, e - mail : media @ ecb. europa. eu website : www. ecb. europa. eu reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. media contacts related topics macroprudential policy stress tests resilience banking supervision banking sector disclaimer please note that related topic tags are currently available for speeches and introductory statements to the press conferences ( with q & a ) from 2018 - 19 only. copyright 2019, european central bank policies