Although not precisely within the period under review, the enactment of the Conversion Law of 1891 has had such far-reaching effects upon the financial situation and general stability of the Republic that it should not be omitted from a record of national legislation dating from even four years later. Prior to the passage of that law, violent fluctuations in the premium of gold, induced by speculation, led to so much disturbance of commerce as to render it necessary to place the national currency on a more substantial basis. With that object in view an average was taken and the value of paper currency was fixed by the law at 44 per cent of the value of gold, in other words, making $227.27, currency, equal to $100 gold. The law further provided for the establishment of a Conversion Fund, which was to be formed by the appropriation of certain sources of revenue and to be added to by annual increments until it reached a total of $30,000,000 gold, which with the gold reserves then existing and to be accumulated were to be employed exclusively for the public exchange of gold and paper at the rate fixed. As shown in the figures relating to gold reserves, the accumulation of gold held in the Caja de Conversion for the purposes of the law, at December 31, 1913, amounted to $233,197,727, representing upwards to 60 per cent of the entire national currency in circulation, a proportion not exceeded by any other country of the world; and with the resumption of exports upon a normal scale, which will constantly bring more gold to the Republic, the relation of gold reserves to currency issues will, in a comparatively short time, be such as to justify the creation of a definite and exclusive gold standard as the monetary system of the Republic. [Illustration: STATUE OF GENERAL SAN MARTIN, BUENOS AIRES] [Illustration: ONE OF THE PALATIAL RESIDENCES IN BUENOS AIRES]