This article challenges current interpretations of the rise of the Eurodollar market. It argues that rather than being the exclusive innovation of British banks, the Eurodollar market had also Italian origins. Foreign-currency lending in Italy in the 1950s was characterized by competitive behavior. I explain the accumulation of Eurodollar deposits by Italian banks as resulting from the fact that nonresident foreign-currency deposits were not subject to reserve requirements. Furthermore, I discuss the attitudes of the Bank of Italy regarding the financing of foreign-currency credits with nonresident dollar deposits (Eurodollars) and compare the Eurocurrency liabilities of Italian banks vis-à-vis those of the City of London. The comparison facilitates an approximate estimation of the size of the Eurocurrency market in the late 1950s and, even more importantly, a recalibration of the view that the City of London was the dominant Eurodollar player from the outset.

本文对当前对欧洲美元市场崛起的解释提出了挑战。它认为，欧洲美元市场并非英国银行独有的创新，它也起源于意大利。20 世纪 50 年代意大利外币贷款的特点是竞争行为。我将意大利银行积累的欧洲美元存款解释为非居民外币存款不受准备金要求的影响。此外，我还讨论了意大利央行对于使用非居民美元存款（欧洲美元）进行外币信贷融资的态度，并将意大利银行的欧元债务与伦敦金融城的欧元债务进行了比较。这种比较有助于粗略估计 20 世纪 50 年代末欧洲货币市场的规模，