222 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS 
drawn, for instance in dollars or gold francs, would be 
paid, these bills having been issued by a National Exchange 
Office in each country adopting the scheme. This Office 
would be attached to the Bank of Issue or independent of 
it; it would be the sole borrower and in each country the 
sole correspondent of the International Credit Institute. 
As this credit is destined to cover any possible tempor- 
ary deficits in the balance of payments, it would, of course, 
be reconstituted by the National Office by the surplus 
private bills which it would purchase during periods when 
the balance of payments was positive. 
This National Office by issuing gold or gold bills at a 
fixed rate would determine the expors gold point of the in- 
ternal currency, since private individuals would have the 
certainty, in the event of the quantity of commercial bills 
being insufficient, of obtaining official bills, e.g., on New 
York, at a fixed rate and so of obtaining gold abroad. As ex- 
perience has shown, they would therefore not be willing 
to pay for the bills a larger sum than the export gold 
point, and so the exchange of countries adopting the 
system would not fall below the established parity. It 
would only be necessary to authorise the National Ex- 
change Office to accept foreign gold at the same rate at 
which it issued gold, or to purchase foreign bills with the 
internal currency at the same rate, after deducting the 
expenses of importing gold, in order to enable it to fix the 
equivalent of an import gold point whenever the balance 
of accounts was positive; for it would guarantee a minimum 
price for the bills of those persons who owned debts 
abroad if they could not immediately find a purchaser. Let 
us take, for instance, an Exchange Office set up in Paris 
and issuing gold or bills on New York at the rate of 15 
francs to the dollar (after deducting the cost of transport- 
ing gold in the case of bills); obviously the rate of the franc 
in relation to the dollar could no longer fall below this point. 
In other words it would no longer be possible to sell 
“dollars,” or to sell in Paris bills drawn on New York at 
more than 15 francs to the dollar, plus the cost of trans- 
ferring gold, i.e., above the gold point. And the quotations