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In the 1950s, Norway was among those countries most reluctant to embrace the ongoing process of currency and trade liberalisation. Both trade liberalisation, the establishment of the European Payments Union (EPU) and the plans for the reintroduction of currency convertibility were met with ambiguity. This ambiguity contrasts both the general image of Norway's traditional liberal foreign economic policy and the expected approach of a small open economy. This article argues that the origins of ambiguity were deeply rooted in the political economy of post-war Norway, and a result of the meeting between grand domestic ambitions, external constraints derived from this set of ambitions and, importantly, the set of prevailing economic beliefs that influenced both domestic policy and international orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]