ABSTRACT
The International Monetary Fund was to give aid to countries which, because of a process of development or because of some temporary difficulty in the domestic economic scene, were short of foreign currency reserves. An elaborate system of rights and duties was designed and funds were made available from the member countries sufficient to deal with most foreseeable situations of this kind. As the years passed, these funds were increased substantially and indeed proved to be generally sufficient as various international currency crises developed in the following quarter-century. The problem of endowing the central organization with a necessary measure of authority was a more difficult one to solve, and undoubtedly has been only partially resolved. Certain undertakings have to be given by countries when borrowing from the International Monetary Fund, but it is of course arguable that these undertakings are not of a very definite kind, and that very little can be done by the International Monetary Fund if they are not obeyed. The Letters of Intent which have so often been discussed in the past are part of this machinery of compulsion.
