Only in 1903 did the operations of the _Caisse de Conversion_ amount to anything. The two principal causes of this state of affairs were, firstly the settlement of the frontier dispute with Chili, a question which had caused serious alarm, and had resulted in enormous official expenses during the few previous years; and secondly the size of the commercial balances. Bearing this in mind, it is not surprising that the amount of gold in the _Caisse de Conversion_, and, consequently the issues of paper money, should have commenced to increase and have continued to do so until they reached the proportions which they have since attained. In 1903 £9,208,284 in gold was taken, and £1,576,625 paid out; leaving £7,648,229. The busiest months were April, when £2,519,048 was taken, and March, when the takings were £1,738,395. The largest outgoings were in March and July, amounting respectively to £239,133 and £222,104. In succeeding years the metallic reserve of the _Caisse de Conversion_ has continually increased, thanks to the favourable sense of the economic balances of the nation’s trade, and the capital which has entered the Republic, to be employed in the establishment of new industries, or the creation of railways, tramways, etc. At the time of writing the metallic reserve of the _Caisse de Conversion_ has lately increased to £34,752,058, which, added to the £5,100,000 of the Conversion Fund, gives a total of £39,852,058. The proportion of these reserves to the paper currency in circulation is to-day 65.9 per cent. According to the law the increase of the metallic balance in the _Caisse de Conversion_ has inevitably caused, as a natural consequence, the parallel increase of the issues of notes, nickel, and silver, of which the amount in circulation increased to $688,177,998 on 31st October 1909, or $393,028,267 more than on 31st December 1899, the year in which the law of monetary conversion was voted, and in which the same circulation amounted to $295,149,731. The rapidity with which the emission of paper has increased has caused certain journals, and especially those which have been prominent in attacking the law of monetary conversion (whose beneficial effects they were yet powerless to deny) to raise cries of alarm, thinking to see in this increase a future economic peril, or the seeds of a dangerous crisis, due to the inflation which, in their judgment, is produced by such issues. But it is easy to prove that these alarms are not justified from the moment when such issues are guaranteed by a corresponding deposit of metallic currency in the _Caisse de Conversion_. Moreover, a very little reflection will show that one cannot help admitting that this gold, being the product of the ever-increasing economic balances of the country, will affect the monetary situation equally if instead of being in reserve in the _Caisse de Conversion_ it is to be found in the strong-rooms of private banks.