The most obvious benefit of a single currency is that it will no longer be necessary to incur(引起) the costs of exchange from one currency to another. Travelers know that these costs are not negligible. First of all, there is a commission 1 (usually a fixed amount); secondly, the price 2 which the traveler purchases foreign currency for domestic currency 3 from the price of exchanging back surplus(过剩) foreign currency. The removal of these transaction costs constitutes a gain from monetary union.
Another benefit is that the removal of exchange rate 4 between the countries of the EU would provide much more assurance to 5 location decisions. At present, a company takes 6 of the risk of exchange rate variation in its location decision, and this may lead it to scatter its plants across the various economies, to hedge against(防范) the risk of exchange rate variation. Removing this source of uncertainty allows investors to 7 according to economies of scale and may lead to more plants of 8 size, a reduction in unit cost of production, and increase in 9 .
A single currency provides the 10 for counter-inflationary(反通胀) policies. A single currency could lead to a 11 in the market discrimination that currently exists in the EU (for example, prices of motor cars of the 12 specification(规格) stand higher in the UK than they do in France) as the quotation(报价) of prices in common currency discourages arbitrage(套利) activity and reduces the market division 13 which such discrimination relies. 14 , firms in one country cannot continue to 15 their prices higher than their European competitors and still remain competitive.
