By the end of the nineteenth century, the world was ready to adopt the gold standard, out of fealty not so much to Britain but to realpolitik concerns of national power, prestige, and anti-English competition. Although the gold standard allowed countries to enact a virtual single world currency, the years before World War I were not a time of unfettered liberal economics and one-world, one-market harmony. Outside of Europe, the gold standard became a tool for nationalists and protectionists primarily interested in growing domestic industry and imperial expansion. This overlooked.