Félix Esquirou de Parieu

Born in Aurillac, Cantal, Esquirou de Parieu was notably Minister of Education and Public Worship from 1849 to 1851, and headed the French Council of State in 1870.

This invitation to adopt a common coinage was the result of economic factors linked to the development of free trade and the emergence of the first federalist ideas in Europe.

He proposed in 1867 to introduce a common currency based on the 10 franc coin, called "Europe", in a "Western European Union".

According to him, a European Monetary Union based on the gold standard would offer "a rich and comfortable metallic circulation [and] the gradual destruction in the economic order of one of those frequent barriers which divide nations, and whose reduction would facilitate their mutual moral conquest, thus serving as a prelude to the peaceful federations of the future."

Parieu was aware of the visionary nature of his ambitions and declared to a skeptical Imperial Senate in 1870: “In the history of mankind, the generous utopia of yesterday can be transformed into a practical and feasible creation of tomorrow, because the world has progressed."