The papers consist of subject files with a limited amount of correspondence, confidential reports mimeographed for limited distribution, printed material on economic development of various foreign countries, carbon typescripts of writings, articles and lectures, research material, and unpublished manuscripts by Triffin, and press clipping files. Files on courses taught at Yale are also present, and some include original material from the subject files which have been filed in with the course material. The presence of a significant amount of correspondence within a folder has been noted whenever possible in the inventory.
Subject files are relative to the financial integration of Europe centering on monetary systems and banking. Of particular interest is the material concerning the economic reconstruction of Europe after W.W.II, which includes reports on the economic penetration of the Germans into the financial structures of occupied countries, including those in Eastern Europe. (See Boxes 24-26). Main topics include: International Monetary Fund, European Payments Union, European Economic Community, O.E.E.C, international liquidity and monetary reform, economic conditions in Europe and Latin America, problems with the U.S. dollar, gold and sterling, exchange rates and the unit of account. Files on Triffin's financial missions abroad for the U.S. government are divided by country. They cover Missions to Latin America, Missions to Western Europe and Japan. The Mission to Iran is well documented and includes folders on the nationalization of the oil industry and the oil negotiations, 1951-1952. Also present are the files on the ECAFE Missions to Asia on the Asian Payments Union. Beginning as almost a complete folder by folder listing, the preliminary inventory grows more general after Box 20. The material in the last boxes arrived in a less organized state and should be checked by researchers if it bears upon their topic. Little rearrangement of the contents of the papers has been done.