Contenido: Introducción -- Balance of Payments problems and regional paymentes Agreements in a Free-trade area -- Balance of Payments problems in a Free-trade area -- Regional Paymentes Agreements -- Multilateral Compensation and Credit Agreements -- Multilateral Compensation -- Balance of Payments Credit in a Payments Union -- Efficiency of the payments Mechanism -- Monetary Barriers to trade Among the less Developed countries -- Other Technical Aspects of Clearing Houses -- A regional Hard Currency Fund -- Latin American Payments Problems and Payments Arrangements from the 1940's to the early 1970's -- The World War II and the Postwar Periods -- Changes in Latin American Reserves During the War -- The Dollar Shortage -- Intra-Latin American Trade and Payments -- Early Studies and Proposals for Multulateral Clearing -- Ecla's Trade Committee end the Central Banks Working Goup -- The Payments Problem and the Creation of the latin American Free Trade Association -- Preliminary Negotiations -- ECLA's Proposals on Payments and Credit in the Latin American Free Trade Area -- Central Agency -- System of "A Priori" Credits -- "A Posteriori" Credit System -- Reciprocal Credit -- The Meeting of Governmental Representatives of Central Banks and Criticisms of ECLA's Proposals -- The Montevideo Treaty -- Latin American International Trede and Payments in the Early 1960's -- The Central American Clearing House -- General Considerations -- Registration of Claims and Debts -- Mutual Credit and Settlements Procedures -- Exchange Control -- Monetary Unification -- New Proposals for a Latin American Clearing House -- The Seventh Session of the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies -- Professor Triffin's Proposal -- Professor Mikesell's Views -- The Seventh Meeting of Central Banks Technicians -- The Latin American Free Trade Association's Credit and Compensation Mecanism -- General Considerations -- Characteristics of LAFTA's Payments and Compensation Mechanicm -- Registration of Claims and Debts -- Volume of Payments Channeled Througt the System and Characteristics of the Bilateral Credit Agreements -- The Santo Domingo Balance of Payments Credit Agreement -- Advantages of LAFTA's Credit and Compenzation System -- The Andean Group -- Inter-Latin American Trade in the late 1960's and Early 1970's -- The Cartagena Agreement -- Harmonization of Monetary and Exchange Rate Polices in the Andean Group -- Some Approaches to the Monetary problems in the Economic Integration of Latin America -- Monetry Unification -- Definition of Currency Area -- Optimal Currency Areas -- Interrregional Balance of Payments Adjustment Within a Country -- Adventages of a Common Currency -- Some Additional Criterios for the Determination of Optimal Currency Areas -- Comlusions -- Eschange Rate Flexibility -- General Considerations -- Flexible Exchange Rates -- Limited Flexibility of Exchange Rates -- Regional Approach to Exchange Rate Flexibility -- Flexble Regional Rates -- Limited Flexibility of regional Exchange Rates -- The Role of a Regional Payments and Credit Agreement -- Monetary Barriers to Trade -- Payments Unions and Balance of Payments Problem in the Economic Integration of Latin America -- Conclusions.