THE MONETARY CRISIS 91 
Currency reform in Austria offers therefore another 
example of stabilisation effected through the Gold 
Exchange Standard. It is true that this method was not 
explicitly mentioned in the reconstruction programme 
drawn up by the League experts. But it must not be 
forgotten that this had been the Austrian system since 
1892, and there was doubtless no necessity to prompt 
the Austrian authorities of the new Bank to pursue a line 
of conduct which was the natural consequence of the time- 
honoured tradition of the Vienna market, and which had 
already been followed by the Austrian section of the 
Austro-Hungarian Bank since the end of August 1922. 
It is perfectly clear from the reports of the Commissioner General 
of the Le~gue of Nations at Vienna that the new Bank of 
Austria, follow: g the example of the former Bank, supplies 
the market with foreign bills at a rate which with the help 
of its foreign credits can be kept nearly constant, and thus 
establishes a fixed export gold point bazed on the new parity 
of the crown. It is no less clear that *y the purchase of all the 
surplus foreign commercial paper at more or less the same 
rate, and with practica’’ unlimited quantities of domestic 
currency at its disposal for this purpose (i.e., by the issue of 
notes), the Bank establishes for the benefit of holders of foreign 
bills a rate which corresponds to the import gold point, and 
which does not allow the dollar to fall in relation to the crown, 
ory in other words, the crown to rise in relation to the dollar, 
above the exchange parity which it has fixed.1 
It is strange, therefore, that the example of Austria 
should have been advanced as proving that all “artificial” 
measures of stabilisation are vain, and that purely empirical 
measures to balance the budget and regulate the circula- 
tion are effective. Though not in name, the Bank of 
Austria, like the former Austro-Hungarian Bank, in fact 
plays the part of a Conversion Office. 
It should also be observed that the Austrian circulation 
has continuously increased since the crown was stabilised. It 
had stood at §49 milliards on June 30th, 1922, had risen 
! This parity is, however, as in Czechoslovakia, not expressly fixed, and 
the Bank of Austria has not opposed a slight rise in the crown.