1. The computation of the values produced by the various industrial groups.
This result would be accomplished by establishing a clearing house for reports on production in all industries and in all parts of the world.
2. The financing or exchange of materials between the various producing groups.
This activity is now carried on by the commercial banker, who handles trade acceptances, bills of exchange, and the like. It need be no more than a system of book-keeping, with the balances entered as loans from the industries that produce a surplus to those that are using more than they produce. Such a situation would of necessity be temporary, since the aim of the central authority would be to balance values in such a way that there would be an equilibrium all around, with no surpluses and no deficits. Such an ideal condition would never be reached, but it could be approximated.
3. Transfers of capital, or loans negotiated between various industrial groups, and covering more than one division.
These loans would take the form of adverse balances in the general clearing between producing groups, and would cover the advances for improvements and betterments, that one producing group would make to another, or that the world producers' federation would make to one of the producing groups.
The exchange and credit board would, in reality, be the book-keeping department for the world producers' federation, whose exchange transactions would be planned and handled through this department.
Two principal functions would be performed by the budget board. On the one hand it would be charged with budgeting or planning the transactions involved in the world organization of economic life. This function would include the estimates of the requirements of the major economic groups during a given year, and the estimate of the sources from which these requirements were to be met. On the other hand, it would be responsible for preparing the budget of the world producers' federation, and of deciding upon the course that must be adopted in order to meet these necessary outlays. Thus the board would correspond, in a sense, to the finance committee of a modern parliament or to the department of finance in a modern cabinet.