The European M:: metary System (EMS) is perhaps the only success story of the Common Market since the First Enlargement. Its success, particul- arly where the comnercial use of the ECU is concerned, has taken rrost experts by surprise. So much so, that when the author tried to recommend to his students a suitable and substantial work of study and/or reference about the experience of the EMS and its possible future evolution --- no book could be found...