Every currency crisis of recent years has been accompanied by a migration of billions of short-term money. Both experts and laymen have again and again been amazed at the speed at which, at relatively short notice, these enormous sums could be mobilised.

In retrospect, the decade of sixties has witnessed substantial upheavals and achievements in the international monetary sphere. Massive flows of hot money from one country to another have stimulated international cooperation on a large scale. The two-tier gold system seems to be an unparalleled...