228 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS
thus bring about a return to the former par. In the belief
that they are acting in conformity with principles of more
than secular respectability, some people expect that our
present difficulties, which run the risk of degenerating into
real dangers, will be automatically solved at a distant
future. They have a serene confidence in certain dubious
forces tending towards equilibrium and in the indirect
effect of factors which may be useful but will not suffice
by themselves. And as deflation appears to be impossible
or inopportune at the present time, as a progressive and
spontaneous return to the former par appears to be somewhat
 utopian in most countries, there is a tendency to
abstain from any other action, even when any reasonable
attempt at monetary reconstruction is not condemned as
“artificial” in the name of “sound doctrine.”
It is the author’s hope that this work taken as a whole,
and in particular the last chapter, may contribute to remove
these prejudicesand that it may impress on the mind of the
reader the belief that a “sound” currency is no doubt a
currency issued in limited quantities, but that it is also and
above all a currency which is convertible at an approximately
 constant rate; and that in order to restore order in
finance, which is at the basis of our social and economic
order, an attempt must be made without delay to make
national currencies convertible into each other, z.e., in
practice, convertible into gold.