This emphasis on the importance of circulation, the defence of a corresponding state intervention by creating an issuing bank and supporting mutualism, also finds expression in his support for “bimetallism”, thought of as a “common monetary language” (idem, ibidem, p. 188), capable of unifying and stabilizing the global economy, guaranteeing the supply and abundance of means. On this point, he argues that, with regard to Ludwig Bamberger’s legislation, it was above all political considerations of prestige and rivalry with France that led Germany to join the gold standard immediately after the Franco-Prussian War, leading to severe international disturbances and an unnecessary accentuation of economic crises (O Projecto de Contrato com o Banco de Portugal, 1904, p. 7).

Regarding Portuguese banking history, and particularly the unification in 1845 of the Banco de Lisboa and the Companhia de Confiança Nacional to form the Banco de Portugal, Laranjo states that the main interests were not safeguarded there; on the contrary, it protected those who were largely responsible for the difficulties (Princípios…, pp. 283–84). However, that did not shake his faith in the potential role of the banks and means of circulation in promoting general prosperity. And the conclusion he draws from the Portuguese case, all things considered, is far from being negative: “despite excessively liberal economic legislation, lax industrial habits, a popular justice that easily dismisses crimes, turning them into misfortunes”, despite various disadvantages “the price of an apprenticeship, that all nations pay, and the crises with many other causes, the progress in wealth has been great and incontestable” (Idem, p. 307), progress that found its fullest expression in the circulation of credit itself.

Economic intervention by the public authorities is necessary in many fields, quite apart from protective tariffs, means of communication, of training and of credit. The state should make different types of insurance mandatory under law and support the establishment of mutual aid societies and the like, “like a net to break falls stretched beneath the varied and arduous gymnastics of life” (“Os Operários sem Trabalho e a Evolução Económica”, 1902, p. 1). This combination leads us to classify Laranjo according to the formula that he himself used: simultaneously a statist socialist and an associationist socialist. When businesses become too large, as technical requirements increasingly make necessary, either the state owns them, he asserts, or they own the state. On the other hand, in the face of these modern Leviathans, which may be either the state of the great businesses, either individuals associate with a view to collective action or their real liberty becomes a hollow word (O Banco Emissor, p. 4).

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