Monetary and trade regimes are not politically neutral.
By allowing for international economic cooperation they produce interdependent relationships among states. They also alter the incentive structures within states, which affect domestic politics and institutions. Regimes are neither all-inclusive nor truly global. Alongside global markets that trade multilaterally in convertible currencies there are a number of regional regimes, which operate under alternative rules. Examples are the eastward economic expansion of Germany in the 1930’s; the socialist market led by the Soviet Union 1949-1991; present day China’s regional trade with East Asia and Africa.
These regimes of trade and payments are highly political because they centralize international trade at the level of the state.
