The centuries-old debt that's still paying interest

"Hey, Tom, you know what really gets numbers on YouTube? Videos about financial minutiae." (Prof. Rouwenhorst is spectacularly overqualified for this interview; he's one of the world's leading experts on finance and financial history, and I'm really grateful he was able to take the time to talk about the original bond!)

Paying interest for nearly 400 years, thats a pretty good credit history.

The name's Bond. Perpetual Bond.

One detail I've always been impressed by: the extension paperwork was issued in 1944. This wasn't a fun time in the Netherlands, but there were commitments that had to be honoured.

at this point they're probably both just like "lets just see how long we can keep it going....." locking down that spot in the Guinness Book

> How to make 11,35€ per year without working!!! < bankers hate him for this trick!

"whats your credit history like?" well sir i have been paying my dept on time for the past 367 years oh

Who else was thinking, this is outrageous until you get to the part where you find out it €11. Then you're thinking, it would be a shame if this ever stopped!

US citizen living in the Netherlands here. I don't get to vote on anything, except for my water board! It's not about citizenship but being protected by the waterworks, which I find super interesting!

"Here's a 367 yr old piece of paper" touches it with his bare hands

Before I saw the numbers, I thought that with 300 years of interest behind it, the debt payments would be huge. Instead, we got a story about a small fun thing that's lasted longer than the United States.

It was a nice touch have the Dutch guy at Yale explain it to us. And a quick reminder for everyone that New Netherland was a Dutch colony settled in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut (where Yale is)... just so the connection makes a little more sense.

I laughed until I realized it's older than my country Then I laughed harder

I once found a coupon in my parent's garage for 25 cents off two packs of Ore Ida potatoes that was from 1986. It explicitly said "no expiration date" on the side, so I brought it to Publix and yeah, they actually took it. I don't know if they had any trouble actually sending it to Ore Ida but I definitely got 25 cents off what inflation turned into $5 of potatoes

The craziest way to get €11.35 ever.

What's interesting is that the original bond only had enough lines to list 295 years' worth of payments. Once 295 years of payments had been made and the bond's log pages were full, the then-bearer of the bond added in a paper addendum to accommodate more payments, which the water authority recognized as valid. Also, Yale policy prevents historical artifacts from leaving their archive unless they're being loaned to another institution, so they cannot take the bond itself with them to collect on it; they can only take the 1944 addendum. Every payment made since Yale got ahold of the bond was on presentation of the addendum instead of the original bond.

They need to make the water bureau the world's only AAAA organization

Dutch water authority goes to the bank "We need a loan" "Have you taken out any loans in the past" "Well let me tell you a story..."

That has got to be good for their credit rating: "3 centuries of payment, never defaulted."

To be correct, the interest payment wasn't lowered. The currency changed from Florijnen or Gulden (guilder) to Euro. Which turned fl 25 into EU 11,35.