Tim Martin thinks the euro currency is doomed to fail and he doesn't want Britain to join, but he said Saturday he'll happily accept euros at his pubs next year.
"We take a large number of currencies at our pubs at Heathrow [airport], the pubs in coastal areas like Dover at the current time, so we will take the euro," Martin said in an interview with BBC radio.
Euro coins and bills are being introduced in the new year, replacing the currencies of 12 participating European nations.
Martin said he had no fears that accepting euros at his 435 JD Wetherspoon pubs would help to break down opposition to its introduction here.
"That is complete and utter nonsense," he said.
Martin, whose pubs feature anti-euro pamphlets and posters, contended that shared currencies such as the euro "normally collapse in 10 to 12 years."
"I don't think I am being doomsdayish, I am simply pointing to history and saying the fact is there is no example in history of the currency working without a government so one year is not enough [to judge]," he said.
"The ERM [European exchange rate mechanism] lasted for a few years, as did the gold standard, as did the Scandinavian money system, but they all ended in collapse."
The exchange rate mechanism, launched by the EU in 1979, fixed exchange rates for member currencies, though allowing for some fluctuation. Britain joined in 1990, but dropped out two years later under enormous pressure from currency speculators.
Countries participating in the euro have had rigidly fixed exchange rates since
The Scandinavian Monetary Union was formed by Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 1873 and continued until 1924.
Britain and the US fixed the value of their currencies to gold in the early 20th century. Britain abandoned the gold standard in the 1930s and the US in 1971.
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