g gold; ratio 15.99 1875, Scandinavian Monetary Union: Rigsdaler specie of 25.28 g silver, converted to 4 krone (or krona) of 4/2.48 = 1.6129 g gold; ratio 15.67 1875, Netherlands: the Dutch Guilder from 9.45 g silver to 0.6048 g gold; ratio 15.625. 1881, Ottoman Empire: the Ottoman lira 1892, Austria-Hungary: the Austro-Hungarian florin of 11.11 g silver, converted to two Austro-Hungarian krone of 2/3.28 = 0.60976 g gold; ratio 18.22 1897, Russian Empire: the ruble from 18 g silver to 0.7742 g gold; ratio 23.25. The gold standard became the basis for the international monetary system after 1873. According to economic historian Barry Eichengreen, "only then did countries settle on gold as the basis for their money supplies. Only then were pegged exchange rates based on the gold standard firmly established." Adopting and maintaining a singular monetary arrangement encouraged international trade and investment by stabilizing international price relationships and facilitating foreign borrowing. The gold standard was not firmly established in non-industrial countries. Central banks and the gold exchange standard As feared by the various international monetary conferences of the 1860s, the switch to gold, combined with record U.S. silver output from the Comstock Lode, plunged the price of silver after 1873 with the gold-silver ratio climbing to historic highs of 18 by 1880. Most of continental Europe made the conscious decision to move to the gold standard while leaving the mass of legacy (and erstwhile depreciated) silver coins remaining unlimited legal tender and convertible at face value for new gold currency. The term limping standard was used to describe currencies whose nations’ commitment to the gold standard was put into doubt by the huge mass of silver coins still tendered for payment, the most numerous of which were French 5-franc coins, German 3-mark Vereinsthalers, Dutch guilders and American Morgan dollars. Britain's original gold specie standard with gold in circulation was not feasible anymore with the rest of Continental Europe also switching to gold. The problem of scarce gold and legacy silver coins was only resolved by national central banks taking over the replacement of silver with national bank notes and token coins, centralizing the nation's supply of scarce gold, providing for reserve assets to guarantee convertibility of legacy silver coins, and allowing the conversion of banknotes into gold bullion or other gold-standard currencies solely for external purchases. This system is known as either a gold bullion standard whenever gold