ABSTRACT
This essay was written in the summer of 1967; its purpose was to explain the nature of the international monetary system and how it functioned up to mid-1967 as a background to the consideration of various possible improvements in the system. Hence, it deals with the system as it has been—not as it might become. While I have made drafting changes and clarifications, I have deliberately not extended the paper to cover the events of the past year so as to avoid discussion of matters about which there are differences in official views. My objective is to analyze the system and not to enter into the political problems of its future evolution.
