The six longest debts in history: who paid them?

Because of the old military duty, the purchase of independence, historical debts and state pensions, sometimes the government left tens, if not hundreds, years to pay its debts. Learn about the oldest and most unusual long-term debts in the history, some of them are paid to this day.

British four-percent console

In 2014, the British government announced plans to pay part of the old public debt, which stretches back to the beginning of the XVIII century. These securities were left from the last consolidation of state funds during Winston Churchill. The Prime Minister issued a consignment of 4% in 1927 to refinance the debt bonds that remained after the First World War.

Historical debts of the kingdom

However, these consoles track the debts of not only the First World War, but also the debts that England assumed during the Crimean War, the wars with Napoleon, the relief of the great famine in Ireland in 1848 and the compensation to the slaveholders after the abolition of slavery. The oldest debt in these consoles is the financial pyramid of the South Seas Campaign. Then, as a result of financial panic and speculation on the exchange, hundreds and thousands of people lost their savings. The victims of this speculation were Isaac Newton and Jonathan Swift.

In 2014, the Chancellor of the Royal Treasury announced that about 11,000 holders of consoles and bonds still receive interest payments from the debt, and the state did not even try to buy back the securities for 67 years.

Pension for participants of the Civil War, which is already 151 years old

Officially, the civil war in the US came to an end as far back as 1865, but a century and a half later one citizen of the country still receives a pension attributed to war participants and their families. Irene Triplett is the daughter of Private Moz Tiplette, a farmer from North Carolina, who started the service on the side of the Confederates, but then joined the ranks of the Unionists. He served in a partisan detachment called "Kirk Raiders." Private Triplett survived the war, returned home and in 1920 married a girl who was younger than him for almost 50 years. When Irene was born, her father was 83 years old. He died a few years later. Now a native of North Carolina living in a nursing home is already 86 years old, and every month she receives compensation of $ 73 for her father's service. She is the last child of a soldier of the Civil War, who is on official lists of state services. However, Irene is not the only person receiving a long-term pension from the state, whose roots go back to the 19th century. A few more people receive family payments for service during the Spanish-American wars in 1898.

German reparations after the First World War

In 1919, the First World War officially ended with the signing of the Versailles Treaty, which obliged Germany not only to cease all military programs and production of weapons, but also to pay an astronomical sum equivalent to 400 billion dollars.

As part of the peace treaty, Germany recognized its defeat and its guilt in unleashing the conflict and pledged to pay 132 billion Deutsche marks to its opponents. To cope with excessive payments, the German government was forced to print "empty" money, which subsequently led to several defaults on the German economy. The American banker came up with a scheme to raise funds to pay off the debt and keep the German economy afloat, but the debt still led to poverty and instability.

World War II and payments

This situation led to popular discontent, which in turn was the impetus for Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party to come to power. Hitler refused to pay reparations and eventually resumed the military industry in the country. The reparations of the First World from Germany remained suspended until 1950, when the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) agreed to continue payment of obligations.

For the next several decades, the country paid international debt, but part of the interest rate on debt obligations remained unpaid by the time of the reunification of Germany in 1990. The last payment of $ 94 million was made in 2010 - almost a hundred years after the signing of the Versailles Agreement.

The indefinite bond of the Dutch Water Council

Some of the oldest promissory notes are still carried out by the Dutch Regional Water Council, which in the 17th century issued bonds in the process of raising funds for the maintenance of dams, dams and piers on the rivers and lakes of the regions of Utrecht and South Holland. One of the first bonds was issued in 1624. In 2003, Yale bought out an indefinite bond of 1648, written on goat's skin, for a quarter of a million dollars. The bond is exhibited in the museum as a historical artifact, but payments are still being made on it. The price of the original investment is one thousand gulden, which is equivalent to 500 modern dollars. In 2015, the Yale professor went to the Netherlands to receive payment for 12 years. It amounted to as much as 153 dollars.

Payments for the independence of Haiti

In 1791, African slaves from the Caribbean island of San Domingo organized a riot and rebelled against their French masters. The uprising ended in 1804 with the formation of the Republic of Haiti, the only state formed as a result of the slave revolt. However, the status of an independent state was far from cheap. Neither France, nor the United States, nor any other state recognized the independence of Haiti.

In 1825, France besieged its former colony and promised a blockade and invasion. The government of the young republic has only one choice - to buy its independence by signing an agreement to pay 90 million gold francs to cover the losses of France and its citizens living in Haiti. The non-rising amount exceeded the republic's annual income by five times, which is why the payments under the agreement continued until 1947.

Today, many activists and politicians require France to return Haiti unjustly selected money. The amount in the modern equivalent is more than $ 20 billion.

French Annuity of 1738

Already about three centuries, France continues to fulfill an unusual debt obligation to the family of a French lawyer, taken back in 1738. In the 18th century, a lawyer named Claude Linott worked as a financial advisor to the French Duke of Bouillon and his children. As a reward for his excellent service, Lynott asked the Duke to sign a lifetime annuity for a thousand livres a year, valid until at least one of the direct heirs of the lawyer himself and his wife are alive. Claude Linott's clan was extremely tenacious, and the annuity remained active despite several national and international conflicts and revolutions. The debt obligation survived the French Revolution, the coming to power and the fall of Napoleon, as well as two world wars. According to a study by economists who published the story of Claude Lintott, in the twentieth century, the French government even tried to buy an unsuitable annuity, but the offspring of a far-sighted lawyer refused to sell it. Payments are made annually to this day, but as a result of inflation and currency change, the size of payments has significantly decreased and is about one euro per year.