[Footnote 109: The famous Italian economist, Eteocle Lorini, maintained in a book which he published in 1902 (_La Republica Argentina e i suoi maggiori problemi di Economia e di Finanza_). that the Republic has never possessed money, but only a simple legal tender or instrument of exchange.] Having glanced at the circumstances which have determined the state of monetary inconversion which has afflicted the country ever since it became a nation, we must now examine the remedies which the public powers have suggested in the hope of emerging from this detestable state of affairs. Every presidency has declared its firm intention of redeeming or reducing the paper currency in circulation; but none of them has obtained results that we can really regard as final. Of all the attempts to terminate the condition of inconvertibility, to give stability to the currency, and to prepare, in a more or less proximate future, for the establishment of a sane monetary system, the most earnest and scientific, and that which had the happiest results, was that which emanated from the proposal presented to Congress in August 1899 by the ex-Minister of Finance, Señor José-Maria Rosa, which has since then become law: the present law of the conversion of the fiduciary currency. The scheme of reform of this eminent statesman was worked out on the following basis:—— 1. Immediately to fix the rate at which the future conversion would be effected, in conformity with the actual and contemporary value of the currency. The fixing of a definite rate was necessary in order to consolidate the then existing state of affairs, to suppress the premium, and to give transactions a positive basis, without indefinitely retarding the possibility of conversion; and also to prepare for the liquidation of old issues, and to deliver the country to some extent from the gigantic burden of its issues. 2. To form a large metallic fund to guarantee this conversion and to make it possible for money to become stable during this period. 3. To maintain a fixed standard by these two means:—— (_a_) The creation, in the _Caisse de Conversion_, of a bureau operating as an automatic regulator, in conformity with the tightness or slackness of money, and according to the necessities of the market; thus making elastic the paper currency, the circulation of which might increase or decrease, on account of the quantity of gold given out in exchange. (_b_) The intervention of the Bank of the Nation in matters of international exchanges.