The British economist Walter Bagehot replied at the time that there would probably be two competing world currencies, which he termed Latin and Teutonic. By Teutonic, Bagehot seemed to mean the Protestant world the United States, recovering from the Civil War, Germany, and Britain.

By Teutonic, Bagehot seemed to mean the Protestant world the United States, recovering from the Civil War, Germany, and Britain. He had no doubt about which vision would win out Yearly one nation after another would drop into the union which best suited it and looking to the commercial activity of the Teutonic races, and the comparative torpor of the Latin races, no doubt the Teutonic money would be most frequently preferred.