ABSTRACT
John Maynard Keynes' interest in a managed standard does not have its genesis in the post-World War I era, for this was one of his prime preoccupations even in the earliest phase of his career. This is evidenced by the very first work written by him while a young instructor at Cambridge. Keynes believed that gold should be used exclusively as a reserve for correcting the influences of a temporarily adverse balance of payments and in this fashion insure the day to day stability of the exchange. The kind of stability favoured by Keynes was unlike the long period stability accorded by the international gold standard. Keynes' early preference for a managed currency is further exhibited in an article he prepared for the Economic Journal in late 1914 on monetary problems of the early war period. Keynes suggested that the monetary authority control the rate of long term foreign lending.
