There is no doubt but that the object which the framers of the Conversion Law originally had in view, the rehabilitation of the country’s Finance and credit, has been fulfilled long ago; and it is for other reasons that Foreign Capitalists and Banks, to whom Argentina must still look for the means of her fuller development, prefer to let the dual monetary system, with its several practical inconveniences, continue instead of encouraging Congress to declare the purpose of the Law fulfilled, by which declaration it would, by its terms, lapse _ipso facto_. On that happening there would be a period, momentary only, in all probability, but still a period, during which the coffers of the Conversion Bank would be open through the automatic lapse of the Law of its creation. And Capitalists and Bankers, grown very prudent indeed in their generation, prefer that those coffers should remain closed and safeguarded as they are; even at the cost of some few extra clerks to cope with a system which otherwise works very satisfactorily. Shin-plasters, as the paper dollars are called by Anglo-Argentines, fulfil all the purposes of daily life as well as would silver or other metallic tokens. Paper dollars, guaranteed by gold, have also other advantages over a metal coinage which might not be so fully guaranteed. Therefore the Conversion Law remains a live letter on the Argentine Statute Book. It is, however, a vulgar error to refer to the time when other tokens might be substituted for paper as the time for “Conversion.” Conversion really took place with the coming into operation of the law which converted a fluctuating ratio into a fixed one. The speculation in gold, referred to elsewhere, which had attained disastrous dimensions just prior to the passing of the Law, was another evil to which that Law put an end. Then as now all everyday transactions were carried out in paper; but, then, no man could tell from hour to hour what the paper he held was worth. Everyone was by force of circumstances practically a gambler whether he wished to be one or not. The paper tokens for which he had sold his wares one day might be worth much more or less the next. Everyone had to make his own forecast of probabilities before he could make or give a price for anything; and therefore became a constant speculator, a gambler in futures, in fact. The bad moral effects of such a state of things is obvious. Many other financial evils were rife at this time, which now have only historic interest, among them may be mentioned the Banks of Issue for which authority appears practically to have been given by the State to anyone able to procure and furnish offices. Stacks of the notes of these precious Institutions still occupy space as curious lumber somewhere in the cellars and garrets of Government House. Valueless and best forgotten by a prosperous and enlightened nation which no longer needs any such awful examples to deter it from lapse into irregular finance.