ABSTRACT
The men who prepared and brought to fruition the Bretton Woods Conference — in the middle of a war — worked under the influence of their experience and their memories. A conviction of the men of Bretton Woods concerned the need for a system of mutual support to aid countries in balance of payments difficulties. The Bretton Woods agreements were destined to take effect in a world fenced in by exchange controls and a network of clearing and payments agreements, the heritages of the prewar and wartime periods. It would take some time and effort to get rid of exchange controls and to get away from bilateralism by establishing convertibility. Even when these results had been generally achieved, it was only to be expected that some country would backslide. The drafters of the charter had the wisdom to provide for a period of transition and for the later possibility of temporary derogations.
