Page 23 of 23

Re: The Bond Dream Room

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:07 am
by dualstow
From the Financial Times, last week, print version:
It was a crisp September day in 2015 when Timothy Young arrived at Houten, an unremarkable Dutch commuter town, determined to col- lect an almost 400-year-old debt. He carried a case containing a fragile piece of goatskin covered in dense writ- ing and numbers. It was a bond, issued in 1648 by a group of Dutch landowners who managed the dikes on a stretch of the river Lek. They had borrowed 1,000 guilders from a local merchant and the bond stated that in return for the loan, the merchant would receive a 5 per cent interest payment every year-for ever.

Although the terms of this so-called "perpetual" bond have changed over centuries of wars, depressions, revolu- tions and new currencies, it is still a valid liability of Stichtse Rijnlanden, a Dutch utility, and is now owned by Yale University's Beinecke Library. Young, a curator at Yale, was collecting €136 of interest from a delighted Dutch official, who had made a giant cheque to commemorate the payment.


Re: The Bond Dream Room

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:09 am
by Smith1776
dualstow wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:07 am
From the Financial Times, last week, print version:
It was a crisp September day in 2015 when Timothy Young arrived at Houten, an unremarkable Dutch commuter town, determined to col- lect an almost 400-year-old debt. He carried a case containing a fragile piece of goatskin covered in dense writ- ing and numbers. It was a bond, issued in 1648 by a group of Dutch landowners who managed the dikes on a stretch of the river Lek. They had borrowed 1,000 guilders from a local merchant and the bond stated that in return for the loan, the merchant would receive a 5 per cent interest payment every year-for ever.

Although the terms of this so-called "perpetual" bond have changed over centuries of wars, depressions, revolu- tions and new currencies, it is still a valid liability of Stichtse Rijnlanden, a Dutch utility, and is now owned by Yale University's Beinecke Library. Young, a curator at Yale, was collecting €136 of interest from a delighted Dutch official, who had made a giant cheque to commemorate the payment.

Dang. Cool.

Re: The Bond Dream Room

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:31 am
by Xan
Smith1776 wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:09 am
dualstow wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:07 am
From the Financial Times, last week, print version:
It was a crisp September day in 2015 when Timothy Young arrived at Houten, an unremarkable Dutch commuter town, determined to col- lect an almost 400-year-old debt. He carried a case containing a fragile piece of goatskin covered in dense writ- ing and numbers. It was a bond, issued in 1648 by a group of Dutch landowners who managed the dikes on a stretch of the river Lek. They had borrowed 1,000 guilders from a local merchant and the bond stated that in return for the loan, the merchant would receive a 5 per cent interest payment every year-for ever.

Although the terms of this so-called "perpetual" bond have changed over centuries of wars, depressions, revolu- tions and new currencies, it is still a valid liability of Stichtse Rijnlanden, a Dutch utility, and is now owned by Yale University's Beinecke Library. Young, a curator at Yale, was collecting €136 of interest from a delighted Dutch official, who had made a giant cheque to commemorate the payment.

Dang. Cool.

Very cool. But... he went all the way to the Netherlands for a €136 payment?

Re: The Bond Dream Room

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:57 am
by Smith1776
Xan wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:31 am
Very cool. But... he went all the way to the Netherlands for a €136 payment?
Hopefully he got a nice vacation out of it!

Re: The Bond Dream Room

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 1:28 pm
by dualstow
Xan wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:31 am
Very cool. But... he went all the way to the Netherlands for a €136 payment?
😂 Good point. Doesn’t even cover the flight!
Yeah. What Smith said.