It was on these lines that the Minister drew up, and Congress adopted, a law which enacted that the nation should convert, during a fixed period, at a convenient time, the whole fiduciary circulation into Argentine gold coinage, at the rate of one paper piastre for 44 centavos of a gold piastre. This same law ordered the formation of a Conversion Fund, with resources which it enumerated; and finally it established in the _Caisse de Conversion_ a bureau for the exchange of paper into gold and _vice versa_ to all who might apply, at the rate of one paper piastre for .44 of a gold piastre. Few laws have been so beneficial as this law of monetary conversion was to the Argentine Republic. The present prosperous economic conditions of the country are the work of this law; it constitutes the glory of Roca’s Government, which gave it birth and enjoyed its first fruits. Yet we must emphasise the fact that this law, so beneficial to the public, was at the outset repudiated not only by the President, who, to avoid subscribing to it, forced his Minister to send in his resignation, but also by the principal organs of the press, at the head of which was that important journal _La Nacion_, and again by the Professor of Finance at the University——M. Terry——who was all for conversion on a sliding scale; that is, for the worst method conceivable, as by maintaining the condition of instability he would have adjourned the question instead of solving it. But thanks to the rare energy and the intelligent propaganda of Señor Rosa, the sole author of the law, effectually supported by Senator Pellegrini and Señor Tornquist, this important step was accomplished, despite all the obstacles which barred the way. In a very short time this law, so strongly opposed before its birth, produced marvellously beneficial effects upon the economic life of the Republic. It gave stability to the currency; that is, it endowed the Argentine with one of the greatest blessings a commercial and productive nation can enjoy. To be convinced of this fact it is enough to run the eye over the column of metallic quotations on the Exchange, published in the “Statistical Annual of the City of Buenos Ayres.”[110] [Footnote 110: _Annuaire statistique de la Villa de Buenos Ayres._——The transactions in metallic values effected on the Buenos Ayres Exchange in 1899 (before the passing of the law), amounted in value to £109,817,116, or $1,234,579,370 paper, while in 1908 there were none. Any one wishing to exchange gold for paper or paper for gold to-day, goes to the _Caisse de Conversion_, where the exchange is effected without any charge.] This law has killed speculation on exchange values, which before it was passed had assumed scandalous proportions, and went far to developing throughout the country that passion for gambling which is even now a corroding cancer at the heart of the young Republic.[111]