Today, the international monetary system is a complex, dynamically developing and transforming system. Naturally, the countries with a developed economy are the main countries that give this or that vector determining the development of the world monetary system. This is not surprising, since it is precisely this block of players in all markets of the world that has a fundamental advantage in the gold and foreign exchange potential.
It should be noted that the evolution of the world monetary system includes four full stages, which are based on four different international systems of currency relations. The first stage of development, or rather, the stage of formation, was the system of the so-called gold standard. Under this system, any currency circulating in the domestic market (of most countries) could be easily converted to gold. Such relations formed quite spontaneously, and this happened around the very end of the 19th century. It is clear that all the stages of development of the world monetary system, including the gold standard, had their own specific features. In the case under consideration, this is: each currency unit has its own specific content in gold equivalent; convertibility of currency into gold took place both within the state and beyond; the formation of a clear relationship between the country's gold reserves and the corresponding monetary turnover. Such stages of the development of the world monetary system implied the existence of a fixed rate. It is worth noting that a fixed rate over time with the development of economic relations has lost its meaning and has been replaced by a system of connected courses.
The second stage, which survived the evolution of the world monetary system, was the gold exchange standard. The essence of this system is reduced to the possibility of exchanging currency for the so-called slogans, that is, checks, bills, banknotes of other countries, which, in turn, can be exchanged directly for gold. This stage, which continued the further development of the world monetary system, was adopted by the world community at the Genoese Conference, held in 1922. As you know, the British pound and, naturally, the American dollar were represented on the role of the slogan currency during this period. Since then, the actual dominance of these currencies on world markets began.
The next stage, which was the evolution of the world monetary system, was the familiar gold standard. This system was formed under the pressure of dynamically changing conditions for the functioning of the world economy during the 30s - 50s of the last century. It is worth noting that, in principle, de jure, this system was legalized in 1944 in the American Bretton Woods. In this case, monetary currencies were exchanged directly, without the participation of gold, which became a fundamentally distinctive feature of this organization of world currency relations. It should be noted that gold at the moment of development, as in previous stages of development of the world monetary system, retained its function of priority and final settlements between different states.
A number of world crises, especially the energy crisis in 1974, have finally and irrevocably discredited the Bretton Woods system. In 1976, the evolution of the world monetary system went into its final stage, at least at the present stage of development. A distinctive feature of this stage was the abolition of the function of gold as a monetary unit. It has become, in a way, an ordinary commodity, though quite liquid. Among other things, at this moment a system of the so-called floating rate was formed, which we see today.