Europe

Please post such questions on !askeurope@lemmy.world

This is not the right community for this (nor is it for testing your unmarked LLM bot)

Yep, Deutsche Mark was a very strong currency. That is part of the more sinister motives for Germany to adopt the Euro. In combination with the extension of the low wage sector in the early 2000s (by so-called social democrats) Germany basically funded their export economy by devaluation of their currency.

Which led to basically the debt crisis, where they then told all their neigbhours to also weaken workers rights and sell out all their state owned property.

But as others wrote it was never about travellers but about businesses for the single market in the EU. Especially small businesses could not be bothered to look for supplies in other countries if there's exchange shenanigans. Much easier now to source all across Europe.

Is that why Euro was created?

Part of the reason was economic: reducing friction in transactions (especially business ones, tourists less so) and creating a currency with a larger economic base and hence greater stability. Part of the reason was ideological: foster international cooperation and interdependence. It was this alliance between conservatives and progressives that led to greater European integration until progress stalled in the early 2000s as both groups lost ground to reactionary movements.

To answer your question: it was a hassle, we had a lot of loose change from various countries lying around the house.

It's kinda normal to exchange money when you're traveling to a different coutry, it's no more inconvenient than the fact that most international travel destinations in Europe are going to speak a language you don't know. i.e. very inconvenient, but stuff like this is kinda part of the experience when you're travelling for fun IMO. Not good when you're there on business, though.

German Mark was a very strong currency, to the detriment of Germany's very export-oriented economy. Many other EU countries did have comparatively weak currencies, even some of the bigger ones like Italy, but it's a double-edged sword to give up the ability to make your own monetary policy.

Since it wasn't mentioned before, I'll write a bit about credit, debt and inflation.

Is that why Euro was created?

Soooo, you may have heard that in the really olden days, currency was backed by valuable metals. Up to the end of Brendan Woods, you could take a US dollar and go to some exchange place and demand and receive a US dollar's worth of gold.

That was a problem.

If anyone, even nations, needed a bunch of money very quickly, they couldn't get it easily, because they would need to either give something of equal value, or take on credit, which people wouldn't give them, because they were already in a financially bad place.

So that "backing" (with gold) was removed. Currency now solely rests on a general "trust" in the country and the economy. And so when things got tight in the Weimarer republic, they just printed money and that's how we got the word "hyperinflation" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic . The situation was solved by resetting the currency. Besides the trouble of the actual printing, it's a huge mess because everything has to be reevaluated, prices are weird and wonky, making people less interested to trade (and pay people in the country for their goods and services).

Buuuuuut, if it's done carefully, a little bit of inflation can actually be good for a domestic economy: Since old debt is just a number, if the value of the currency gets lessened, that old debt is easier to pay back. Improved exchange rates make goods and services from that country cheaper and more competitive and ideally that can promote international trade.

The Euro removes both.

It does that by sort of, kind of coupling economies and using trust in some parts of the European economy to serve as back for the rest that is struggling.

Which means when greece had a debt crisis (in 2010 or so), they couldn't just debase their currency and call it done, it was a huge international problem.

It's the reason why countries that are rather on the "let's take on more debt, lol" side of economic planning, often back plans for "euro bonds" that create shared responsibility between european nations for the debt any nation takes on.

In practice, the biggest reason is probably still that trading and managing international companies become a lot easier if things don't have to be converted all the time.

The euro was mostly important for business, not so much for individuals. Although everyone had to get used to it for a bit and some boomers still convert back to the old currency.

What was much more impactful was the shengen accord. This opened up the borders. If you wanted to go from the Netherlands to Germany, you'd no longer have to pass a borderguard. Sure, you'd need a few Marks, but you'd probably have those in a drawer somewhere, or you could just exchange some at the border or at a bank. But now you can easily get grocries at a foreign supermarket if you live near the border.

Open borders also meant free trade. No longer did you see rows of trucjs at the border, waiting for inspection. All trafic could just flow freely.

I didn't live in Spain when the had pesetas, but there is a hardware store 8 go to that still has the billing in euros & pesetas....

I remember visiting family friends in Yugoslavia just before it broke down, and getting a new bag of money from the ATM every morning because the rate was so volatile and the currency was basically worthless.

Which ties into the question about the German mark. It was a strong currency and the second largest reserve currency after the USD. It had some use outside Germany too, it was accepted for payment in some countries that had more volatile local currencies, and Kosovo and Montenegro straight up used it as their official currency until they switched to the Euro. Bosnia’s currency is named after it, uses its unit names, and was pegged to it (now to the Euro).

One reason for the Euro, and one reason why there was resistance to it in Germany, was the idea that a common currency could keep a unified Germany’s economy in check. Especially France wanted this, and Germany agreed to make an eventual monetary union part of the package deal for German reunification.

But the general idea of the Euro is that it reduces barriers to trade. And as opposed to the previous paragraph, this part actually worked.

Some EU countries negotiated exceptions to the Euro a long time ago (like Denmark), but in general there are requirements a country needs to fulfill before joining the monetary union. Most countries that aren’t using the Euro now are legitimately not meeting these requirements. Sweden is the main one actively not trying to meet them but that’s an exception. Recently there have been more voices that this was a mistake, as research has shown that the Euro significantly increased trade and foreign direct investment, and in comparison we can see that Sweden just did not get those benefits.

Parallel pricing is kind of normal. People need to get used to the new numbers. We had this too when the Euro was new.