was not limited to the pool of national saving. indeed, in the last few decades of the 19th century, saving and investment at the national level apparently were far less correlated with each other than they were for most of the 20th century, suggesting a greater degree of globalization of investment financing in the latter part of the 19th century than existed in the succeeding century relative to the size of our domestic economies. thus, our great grandparents lived in a world in which the product of their efforts well may have been sent to foreign shores. quite often, those efforts were funded in part by foreign investors. as a result, what happened in the financial markets of the city of london, however distant, would echo around the globe. although this system produced inevitable errors of mispricing and panic on occasion, it reliably funded the opening of new economies and the rolling back of frontiers across the americas. a considerable portion of the most impressive infrastructure built over the centuries - including the center of old mexico city itself, our system of canals in the united states, and thousands of miles of railroad track bed and bridges in all our countries - provides eloquent testimony to the net benefit of that international trade and finance. how the world differs but we should remember that the world of the 19th century differed in important respects from our own. for one, our great grandparents were more likely to relocate. given the great waves of immigration in the mid and late 19th century, it was not unprecedented in some countries that migration would change the population by one - tenth in a decade. the erection of hurdles to the free flow of workers since then implies that our national relationship with foreign countries is more likely to reflect commercial interests than lingering ties of earlier origin. it also requires that capital and managers relocate to tap the pool of lower - cost workers available worldwide, helping to explain both the rise of multinational firms and much of the expansion in real wages over time in developing countries. the output of our workers also differs. while ore - laden ships still cross the great lakes, quite often goods of far higher value are packed in the hold of a single cargo jet bound for a more distant location. simply put, the advent of the microchip has allowed producers to increase the value of output while shrinking the physical volume it takes up. the range of innovation in the high - technology industry is truly awesome, bringing new products on line at a staggering pace and directly adding to the advance of output per hour worked in that sector. and as knowledge and skill

there was only one question in my mind, subject to the approval of the eccb monetary council : how quickly could we get this done? you see, typically, the design and production of a new note has a lead time of two years. i immediately called our director of currency, mr. rosbert humphrey who subsequently contacted de la rue, our longstanding currency partner. and so our journey to this launch began. of course, we had to secure the approval of the monetary council - which comprises the eight ministers for finance of the eccu participating governments - to do something that had never been done before. the monetary council ( which the honourable dennis cornwall sits on as grenada's finance minister ) unanimously approved grenada's request last july, after which we were officially off to the races. at this juncture, i wish to recognise the work of the grenada team led by orlando romain. orlando, as you all know, is one of grenada's leading creatives. orlando could you please stand and take a bow? i wish also to recognise the work of my colleague rosbert humphrey, director of our currency management department for his dedication to this collaboration. rosbert, could you please stand and take a bow? and i thank de la rue, the longstanding minter of eccb's notes, represented by mr. gareth evans who is here to witness this special occasion. gareth, could you stand and take a bow? prime minister, thank you for the pleasure of this collaboration. as you know the eccb celebrated its 40th ( ruby ) anniversary last year. during our celebrations, we hailed the contribution of our founders and framers. one of our founders is the grenadian who, on july 5th, 1983, signed the eccb agreement, without which there would be no eccb. does anyone recall who signed the eccb 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches agreement for grenada? yes, it was maurice bishop who, two years prior on june 18th, 1981 in st. kitts, signed the treaty of basseterre on behalf of grenada, establishing the organisation of eastern caribbean states ( oecs ). grenada is the first member of the eastern caribbean currency union to have attained political independence. on the occasion of this golden milestone, grenada is creating another first with the launch of a $ 50 commemorative circulation note simply called the grenada $ 50. " commemorative " simply means that the note is issued on the special occasion of grenada '