# Countries still paying debt from 1711.



## sags (May 15, 2010)

The UK is still paying debt from 1711, that was rolled into debt acquired during World War 1.

They are making the first payment on the principal after 67 years.

The debt was converted into "perpetual" bonds that never have to be repaid. The interest rate has ranged from 3-4% mostly.

The US and Germany are also included in the article.

http://qz.com/290183/in-2014-countries-are-still-paying-off-debt-from-world-war-one/


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

> on Oct. 3, 2010, Germany finally paid off all its debt from World War One. The total? About 269 billion marks, or around 96,000 tons of gold.


Wasn't that debt due to reparations assigned to Germany by the Allies after losing (or withdrawing from WWI)..which put Germany into a deep
depression and the rise of Hitler..plunging them into a very expensive costly WWII.
But, I guess they won't have to pay their debts to losing WWII, because that would put Germany into perpetual debt...which is the way the US is going now...nearly 18 trillion.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

That QZ headline is typical populist media sensationalism.

In UK's case, the amount of repaid old debt is tiny. They could have redeemed those perpetual bonds long time ago. But why would they? They kept them outstanding because it was cheap debt. Cheaper than refinancing at prevailing rates of the day. 

They decided to kill them now because interest rates have dropped so much. They figured they can save a bit of interest by refinancing.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Also, states/governments are not people.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Governments never pay down debt, they just refinance it and try to inflate it away. When you can blow money like water and stick someone else with the bill, why bother paying anything?


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

I'd be amazed if any of the debt from 1711 had any actual value remaining due to inflation...they've added to it immensely over the years just to keep it around I'm sure.


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