102 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
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And the relation between imports and exports obviously was quite 
in accord with theoretical expectation, and with the experience 
of other countries under similar circumstances. The loans to 
Argentina were effected by an inflow of goods, not by an inflow of 
money ; and similarly, when the reversal came in 1890 — when 
loans were no longer forthcoming and interest payments had to be 
made on the loans of the past — the payments thus due to other 
countries (Great Britain almost solely) were effected by enlarged 
exports of goods. The substantive course of trade, in Argentina 
no less than in the United States, was such as one must 
expect. 
Argentina, to repeat, was on a paper basis, just as the United 
States had been. There were, it is true, differences between the 
paper régimes of the two countries; but none that were of con- 
sequence for the present purpose. Argentine money was issued 
by banks, under a system imitating the United States National 
Banking system of the same time. The Argentine law and its 
execution were so lax as to make convertibility into gold a mere 
pretense. Specie hence could not enter or leave Argentina in such 
way as to affect directly its monetary system or its monetary 
conditions. Gold, to be sure, was on hand in the country and did 
move in and out, sometimes in substantial quantities. But the 
movements did not impinge on the country’s currency supply. 
[t is not necessary to consider some aspects of the technique of 
foreign exchange dealings, which again present differences from 
those of the United States. Exchange was bought and sold in 
terms of gold pesos; hence the quoted rates of exchange showed 
stability. But the actual payments for exchange (sterling) were 
made in Argentine paper pesos. It was thus gold, not sterling 
exchange, which was directly the object of trading in terms of paper. 
The only thing that was quoted was a premium on gold in terms of 
paper. But the gold premium was in effect the rate of exchange; 
it was this to which an importer or exporter turned his attention 
when buying goods or arranging for remittances. 
The important respect in which the Argentine case differs from 
the American is, as has already been said, that the Argentine paper