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A reserve currency (or anchor currency) is a currency that is held in significant quantities by governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. The reserve currency is commonly used in international transactions and often considered a hard currency or safe-haven currency. People who live in a country that issues a reserve currency can purchase imports and borrow across borders more cheaply than people in other nations because they don't need to exchange their currency to do so. By the end of the 20th century, the United States dollar was considered the world's most dominant reserve currency,〔("The Federal Reserve in the International Sphere" ), ''The Federal Reserve System: Purposes & Functions'', a publication of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 9th Edition, June 2005〕 and the world's need for dollars has allowed the United States government as well as Americans to borrow at lower costs, granting them an advantage in excess of $100 billion per year. However, the U.S. dollar's status as a reserve currency, by increasing in value, hurts U.S. exporters.〔("Go with the flows: The rise and fall of the dollar" ), ''The Economist'', 22 January 2011〕 ==History== Reserve currencies come and go. International currencies in the past have included the Greek drachma, coined in the fifth century B.C., the Roman denari, the Byzantine solidus and Islamic dinar of the middle-ages, the Venetian ducato of the Renaissance, the seventeenth century Dutch guilder and, more recently, the British pound and U.S. dollar. The Dutch guilder emerged as a ''de facto'' world currency in the 18th century due to unprecedented domination of trade by the Dutch East India Company. However, the development of the modern concept of a reserve currency took place in the mid nineteenth century, with the introduction of national central banks and treasuries and an increasingly integrated global economy. By the 1860s, most industrialised countries had followed the lead of the United Kingdom and put their currency on to the gold standard. At that point the UK was the primary exporter of manufactured goods and services and over 60% of world trade was invoiced in pound sterling. British banks were also expanding overseas, London was the world centre for insurance and commodity markets and British capital was the leading source of foreign investment around the world; sterling soon became the standard currency used for international commercial transactions.〔("A history of sterling" ) by Kit Dawnay, ''The Telegraph'', 8 October 2001〕 Attempts were made in the interwar period to restore the gold standard. The British Gold Standard Act reintroduced the gold bullion standard in 1925,〔(Text of the Gold Standard Bill speech ) by Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 4 May 1925〕 followed by many other countries. This led to relative stability, followed by deflation, but because the onset of the Great Depression and other factors, global trade greatly declined and the gold standard fell. Speculative attacks on the pound forced Britain entirely off the gold standard in 1931.〔(Text of speech by Chancellor of the Exchequer ) Philip Snowden to the House of Commons, 21 September 1931〕 By the mid 1930s, many governments introduced tariffs and autarkic policies, and the pound sterling lost its dominance as a reserve currency. After World War II, the international financial system was governed by a formal agreement, the Bretton Woods System. Under this system the United States dollar was placed deliberately as the anchor of the system, with the US government guaranteeing other central banks that they could sell their US dollar reserves at a fixed rate for gold.〔http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/exchange-rate-policies/Documents/Appendix%201%20Final%20October%2015%202009.pdf〕 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the system suffered setbacks ostensibly due to problems pointed out by the Triffin dilemma— 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「reserve currency」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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