These details prove that the fundamental idea at the bottom of the creation of the _Caisse de Conversion_ was that of effecting, by its help, and by utilising the resources with which it was endowed, a rapid redemption of paper money. This intention, moreover, was solemnly affirmed at home and abroad when the contract was signed with the English bankers for the issue in 1891 of the loan known as the “Funding Loan,” amounting to £15,000,000; in virtue of which loan the Government undertook to withdraw from circulation, during each of the years 1891, 1892, and 1893, $15,000,000 in notes, or $45,000,000 in the three years. Unhappily the Government’s good intentions had no practical issue; the _Caisse de Conversion_, from the first moments of its existence, found it impossible to fulfil its object. So the proposal to withdraw $15,000,000 a year went no further than a beautiful ideal; it never took definite shape as a reality. In 1891 $1,696,676 in paper were burned; they came from an additional customs duty on certain imports. In 1892 $1,463,424, having the same origin, were disposed of in the same way. Besides this a sum of $3,511,600, provided by the payments made by the National Bank and the Bank of the Province of Buenos Ayres on account of $35,116,000 lent them by the Government in order to help them out of a greatly embarrassed condition, was also burned. The balance-sheet of receipts and expenditures drawn up every year by the _Comptabilité Générale_ records only $1,248,032 as burned in 1891, and $3,586,255 in 1892, or $4,834,287 in two years; a very different sum to the 30 millions which the Government had promised to withdraw. Thus the _Caisse de Conversion_, from which the Minister of Finance had hoped so much, failed at its birth, and as an institution gave no positive results. So it was not necessary, as the Minister of Finance, Señor V. F. Lopez, pleasantly remarked, to await the appreciation of future Governments. But this is not all; instead of redeeming the promised quantities of fiduciary money, the Government which was then directing the destinies of the country——we must believe that it was compelled by circumstances, which are so often more potent than the human will——the Government actually found itself forced to increase the total of paper in circulation by emitting, for various reasons, further issues of notes.