Existing International Payments and Exchange Systems in Relation to Problems of Growth: I

Abstract

It seems hardly possible to discuss certain essential aspects of the relationship between existing international payments and exchange systems and problems of growth without at least touching upon the origin of these systems. Fortunately we can assume as known the many other important aspects of the question, such as those relating to each country’s monetary system and to the attempts of national economic policies to combine the two purposes of keeping up economic growth and re-establishing monetary stability. Particular interest attaches, in this context, to the courses followed by the major European currencies during the years 1951–58 in the direction of convertibility, after a period in which non-convertibility appeared as a necessary evil.