International Order and Economic Integration

The present book which has now the honour of being published in an English translation has been written almost six years ago. It would be futile to hope that, in a time of rapid change like ours, it would still correspond to actual conditions in every detail. Since, however, it is meant to be a book whose principal aim it is to draw attention to the essential problems of international order and the fundamentals involved and since those can hardly be said to have seriously changed within the last years, I venture to submit that it may still be useful as a guide through the maze of questions in the field of international economic relations. This, I hope, will prove particularly true with regard to the special problems which have been raised by the recent important events in Europe, i.e. by the organization of the European Economic Community and the European Free Trade Association and by the new system of convertible currencies which has taken the place of the European Payments Union since the beginning of 1959. The reader will have little difficulty to understand the critical attitude which I have taken vis-à-vis the European Economic Community and which I have explained at greater length in some recent publications (a.o. Gemeinsamer Markt und Freihandelszone, Ordo Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft vol. X, 1958, pp. 31-62; Zwischenbilanz der europäischen Wirtschaftsintegration, ibidem, vol. XI, 1959, pp. 69-94). One of these articles, entitled ‘European Free Trade – the Great Divide and published in the September 1958 issue of ‘The Banker’ has been inserted in this book as an epilogue.

There is another event which has occurred since the German publication of this book and which also is of primary importance on the international scene. I refer to the dramatic change of the USA balance of payments from a surplus to a deficit which is tantamount to a change from a ‘dollar shortage’ to a ‘dollar abundance’. But here again the reader will understand why the author has not precisely taken by surprise, and he will find, after having read this book, no difficulty to understand what has happened and why it has happened. Since the author has never believed in the ‘dollar scarcity’ as an Act of God he has nothing to retract from what he has said six years ago on this subject – as on many others.

WILHELM RÖPKE

Graduate Institute of International Studies
Geneva

February 1960