ABSTRACT
Of the six countries that created the European Economic Community in 1957, the three smaller ones, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, had for more than a decade made pioneering efforts at ever-widening financial and economic collaboration and integration. The three countries-the first two of which had been joined in the Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union since 1921-had concluded a monetary agreement dealing with exchange rates and mutual credits in 1943, had moved toward a customs union in the course of the 1940s and liberated capital movements substantially in 1954. They also entered upon an economic union in 1960, 33 years before the birth of the economic union of the Twelve. Although the passage of time and the creation of new institutions-the IMF, the European Payments Union (EPU) and above all the EC-have deprived the earlier endeavors at multilateral cooperation of much of their original significance, these pioneering efforts and their after-effects deserve more attention than they have so far received.1
