that during the war and

96 STABILISATION existing before the war. We have seen that during the war and also to some extent after the war, statesmen and economists regarded the return to pre-war conditions as an ideal towards which the world had to strive. During the war it was taken for granted that pre-war financial conditions would be restored almost without any material change as soon as hostilities were over. This optimism gradually vanished in the light of postwar experience. With the progress of years, it was gradually realised by every country that if and when stability in the world was restored, it would be a rather different kind of stability from that prevailing before the war. The differences were considered, however, to be of secondary importance only. In many countries, the mint parity had to be changed. In most countries the gold standard to be adopted was a different system from the one prevailing before the war. There were other differences of detail, but in spite of that, the world was convinced that it was working its way towards the restoration of a system which would be substantially the same as the pre-war system.