I shall structure this article around three themes. First, what have been, historically, the conditions for a proper functioning of a true international monetary system? Second, is it possible, in the world of today, to recreate such conditions? And third, absent a positive answer to this question, what can be done?

So, what have been the key elements of the functioning of the gold standard and, later, of the dollar exchange standard under Bretton Woods? The gold standard that stabilised