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 some- 
what 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 approxi- 
mately 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.