At a time when the cultivation and development of trade relations with South America seem most alluring, we find a principal embarrassment in the currency and credit conditions which obtain in most South American States, but Argentina, one of the most favored of South American States, has a stable and sound currency system. Her unit is the _peso_, of 100 _centavos_. The gold peso is equal to $0.9647 in United States money. In 1889 the Government took measures to acquire gold and fixed the relation of paper to gold at 227.27 per cent., and it has since been maintained at that level without fluctuation. This made the paper peso equal to about $0.44 gold. They have a very large gold reserve in their _caja de conversion_, 262,000,000 pesos gold, which protects the paper money and gives it stability. Gold payments were suspended temporarily at the commencement of the European war (1914), but paper money seems to have remained at par.... BRAZIL Brazil was formerly a colony of Portugal, and naturally copies the parent country in her currency system. Her unit is the _milreis_, of 1000 _reis_. Nominally the gold standard prevails, but depreciated paper is the currency of her commerce. The milreis contains 12.686 grains of pure gold and is worth in United States currency $0.546. In 1898 the Government assumed the sole power to issue paper money, and strove to bring the same to a parity with gold; the arbitrary valuation put upon the milreis by the Government was 15_d._ or $0.30. On December 20, 1910, the value of a milreis was raised to 16_d._ The Government accumulated a conversion fund, understood to be $60,000,000 to $70,000,000, but owing to crises at home and abroad it has not yet been able to make gold and paper notes interconvertible. Brazil possesses an enormous area, and is wonderfully rich in undeveloped resources. Her coffee and rubber are especially valuable and should take care of her international trade balances. In the near future her currency should become stable and free from fluctuation. Brazilians receive important service from foreign banks and bankers. CHILI Chili has the gold standard, but her paper currency is not maintained at a parity with gold; her unit is the _peso_, of 100 _centavos_, of the value of 18_d._... FOOTNOTES: [89] The following table, from _The Monetary Systems of the Principal Countries of the World_, compiled in the office of the Director of the Mint, Washington, 1912, gives the weight, fineness, etc., of the coins of Great Britain: