The European Payments Union: Financial Diplomacy in the 1950s

Kaplan here presents an authoritative history of the European Payments Union, a regional payments organization set up in 1950 by the member countries of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (the forerunner of the OECD). Started with help from the U.S., the EPU provided a multilateral system of settling internal payments, surpluses, and deficits; fostered liberalization of inter-European trade; and provided for the reintroduction, t the end of 1958, of the external convertibility of European currencies.