The transferable ruble was the first large-scale project to create a supranational monetary unit. Other supranational monetary units appeared later. So in this matter, our country was ahead of the rest of the world.
The CMEA building in Moscow. Beginning 1970s
The transferable ruble, which has been in effect since January 1964, is a collective unit of account, the collective currency of the CMEA countries, designed to service their multilateral settlement system. Introduced under an agreement signed on October 22, 1963 by the governments of the People's Republic of Belarus, Hungary, East Germany, Mongolia, Poland, SRR, USSR and Czechoslovakia. After joining the CMEA, the Republic of Cuba and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam also joined this agreement.
Settlements in the PR began on January 1, 1964 through the International Bank for Economic Cooperation (IBEC) by transferring funds expressed in them from the account of one country to the account of another. The gold content of the transferable ruble was set at 0, 987412 g of pure gold. PR was a unit of account and served as a scale for the prices of goods in the mutual trade of the CMEA countries.
In a concrete-subject form (for example, in the form of banknotes, treasury bills or coins) the transferable ruble was not circulated. The source of the transferable ruble for each country was the crediting of imports of its goods and services by countries participating in the multilateral settlement system. The basis of the system of settlements in transferable rubles was formed by the multilateral balancing of commodity supplies and payments.
This was the first large-scale project to create a supranational currency. Other supranational monetary units appeared later. I am referring primarily to the so-called Special Drawing Rights, usually abbreviated as SDR (Special Drawing Rights - SDR). SDR is a monetary unit that began to be issued by the International Monetary Fund for settlements between the member countries of the fund.
At the time of the appearance of the new system of international units of account, the cost of a SDR unit was pegged to gold and amounted to 0.888671 g of pure metal, which corresponded to the cost of 1 US dollar. The first issue of the SDR started on January 1, 1970. Then some assumed that over time, the SDR will become the main world currency. However, today the volume of SDRs is extremely small, the share of this monetary unit in the international reserves of all countries of the world does not exceed 1%.
From time to time, various politicians and officials make statements that a condition for overcoming the current crisis in international finance is a sharp increase in the issue of SDRs by the International Monetary Fund, that SDRs should become world money. Such statements were made, for example, by the recent director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Undoubtedly, such proposals run counter to the interests of the main owners of the "printing press" of the FRS, who by any means are fighting to keep the US dollar's status of international money. It was at the direction of the Fed owners that Strauss-Kahn was expelled from the fund and politically destroyed.
Ten years later (after the SDR), the supranational unit ECU appeared in Europe, and in 1992, within the framework of the European Union, a supranational currency called "euro" (Maastricht agreements) was born. Initially, it was intended only for international non-cash payments. For some time, the euro monetary unit coexisted with the national currencies, but later the national money was abolished.
Today, 17 European states that make up the so-called Eurozone use the euro both for international settlements and in domestic circulation.
If we compare the euro with the transferable ruble, then it should be noted that the latter did not exclude or in any way restrict the use of national money by the CMEA member countries. There was no encroachment on the national sovereignty of the countries participating in the association.
The PR was in international circulation for 27 years - from 1964 to 1990. The scale of the use of PR at that time was grandiose. The total volume of transactions and operations using a new type of currency for the specified period amounted to 4.5 trillion transferable rubles, which is equivalent to 6, 25 trillion dollars.
The scale of the use of PR was constantly increasing. If in the first five years of the existence of the PR (1964-1969) the volume of transactions amounted to 220 billion units, then in the last five years (1985-1990) - already 2100 billion units (equivalent to almost 3 trillion dollars).
Thus, the turnover of the PR increased by almost 10 times.
In the period 1985-1990, according to the UN, the average annual turnover of all international trade was about $ 6 trillion. And the average annual volume of foreign trade of the CMEA countries with the use of the transferable ruble is 310 billion dollars (see: SM Borisov. Ruble is the currency of Russia. - M.: Consultbankir, 2004. - P. 126).
Postage stamp dedicated to the economic meeting of the CMEA member countries at the highest level. 1984 year
Consequently, over 5% of international trade in the world in the last five-year period of the CMEA's existence was provided with the help of the transferable ruble.
In transferable rubles, the value indicators of contracts for the supply of goods, the provision of services, the implementation of construction and installation and other works were expressed, estimates and feasibility studies of many joint projects were drawn up.
Second, the transferable ruble was the currency of payment. The corresponding amounts were transferred from the accounts of buyers (importers) and customers and credited to the accounts of sellers (exporters) and contractors. Payment transactions were carried out with the participation of IBEC.
Third, the transferable ruble is credit money. They came into circulation in the form of loans from some countries to others for the supply of goods and for the implementation of investment projects. Consequently, with the help of the PR, the debts and obligations of countries and individual enterprises and organizations, participants in trade and economic relations, were expressed.
It is noteworthy that, within the CMEA framework, countries strove to ensure the most balanced trade in order to prevent the excessive accumulation of debts of individual countries in transferable rubles.
In addition, with the help of the PR, the capitals of such international banks as the IBEC and the International Investment Bank (IIB) were formed, and the activities of a number of international organizations within the CMEA framework were financed.
Soviet propaganda poster
Just as the national currencies of the CMEA member countries could not participate in international settlements, also the transferable ruble could under no circumstances be used in the internal circulation of these countries.
How is this tool useful? He helped the economy maintain independence from Western markets and international crisis processes. The experience of the 1960s does not need to be copied, but it is necessary to use it to our advantage.
