About the author. James MacDonald, a British scholar of economic history and financial history, has worked in the financial investment community for a long time, and his research area is the impact of finance on national politics and history, and has published many reviews in the Financial Times and other publications. In 2015, he published his second book, The Failure of Globalization: The Rise and Fall of American Governance.
About the book. Debt and the Rise of the State, written in 2003, is the result of years of research and reflection by MacDonald. At the beginning, MacDonald's original intention was to write a history of public debt, but as he deepened his writing, he discovered that the birth, collection and repayment of public debt were inseparable from the two basic functions of the state, war and public management. Eventually, this purely historical history of public debt becomes an interdisciplinary work that deals with the origins of modern politics and financial systems at the same time.
Core content. In order to provide public services and protection to its members, the State has been committed to generating as much income as possible from its inception. In the process of evolving into a modern country, as the functions and responsibilities increase, the country's fundraising capacity and the size of its income determine their position in the competition. In this book, author MacDonald takes a unique approach and explains from a financial perspective why modernity first emerged in Europe. It was the "time in exchange for space" financing method to advance future revenues in advance of public debt that allowed European countries to gradually shift from feudal monarchy to modernization.
How public debt is generated.
Community, which provides a variety of public facilities and services to its members, public expenditure of the State, and fundraising.
Eastern countries. Take advantage of a huge bureaucracy to tax all citizens in your territory and accumulate vast amounts of wealth.
Western countries. Borrowing from the aristocracy and repaying it with the spoils of war, calling on all citizens to make voluntary contributions, citizens are obliged to buy public bonds, ** repaid.
How does public debt force European countries to reform their systems?
Levy taxes, cut cakes.
It gathers a large amount of wealth and resources, and has a great impact on the existing economic and social members.
Borrow money and make cakes.
Advance future income for investment, solve current problems, and operate properly, ** and social income will have greater growth in the future.
Borrowing risk control.
The borrowing risk is high and is controlled through the short-term high-interest borrowing model.
The issuance of public bonds requires parliamentary deliberation, and the creditor bourgeoisie enters parliament and shares political power.
Venetian Public Debt.
Venice at the beginning of its establishment, it can be said that it is poor and white, except for fishing and salt, there is almost no other way to make money, but the expansion of the city, the construction of merchant ships, the maintenance of the navy, all cost money, in 1164, the governor of Venice at that time and 12 wealthy merchant families borrowed money, after the sale was done, with the profits to gradually repay the principal and interest. As a result, 12 wealthy merchant families signed loan agreements with Venice** at an annual interest rate of 5%. The Venetians call it the public debt. Later, this subscription of public bonds soon changed from voluntary to compulsory and became an obligation of ordinary Venetian citizens. In a sense, when you buy a public bond, you buy a household registration in the Republic of Venice.
The political system of Venice at that time was a republican system: although the governor was for life, he had to be elected by a legislature, the "Great Council". The number of members of this great council ranged from 1,200 to 2,000 people, and they were basically wealthy and high-status gentlemen and businessmen in Venice, who could be regarded as representatives of Venice's creditors and held the economic lifeline of the entire city, so Venice did not dare to slack off on them. Venice soon passed legislation stipulating that interest payments on public bonds should take precedence over all other expenditures. The principal of the public debt must be repaid by the surplus of ** income, and the east wall cannot be torn down to make up the west wall, and other necessary expenses cannot be embezzled.
Venice Bond Iteration.
According to the doctrine of the Bible, it is strictly forbidden for ** believers to lend usury to each other, but if the interest rate is too low, the public debt cannot be sold. The Venetians were in a hurry, and mobilized a group of theologians and jurists to find a way to exploit the loopholes of the Bible. The group of theologians and jurists spent a long time coming up with two solutions, one is to interpret interest as damages paid by the debtor to the creditor according to Roman law. The second is to declare that the debtor of the public debt does not have to repay the principal, but must pay interest to the creditor on a long-term, or even perpetual basis. In this way, the most critical element of the traditional lending relationship is removed, such as principal repayment, and the borrower and the borrower can confidently declare, "Our relationship is not a debt relationship at all!"”
In Venice**, the pressure of paying a little interest every year is much smaller than repaying the principal. Moneylenders have since become equivalent to having a fixed income every year. In addition, due to the lack of development of mathematics at that time, the yield of this kind of "perpetual bonds that do not recover the principal and continue to pay interest" is relatively easy to calculate. Some historians have praised the birth of this kind of perpetual public debt as "the first economic exploration in the West".
Beginning in 1285, Venice gradually transformed its ordinary public debt into a perpetual public debt. Due to the good operation of Venice ** and the punctual payment of interest, the public bonds issued by Venice ** have become a very good investment financial product in the eyes of residents.
Liquidity of money.
Money, only in the flow, can play its due role and bring more benefits, simply turning the wealth in hand into *** hidden in the treasury cellar, it is impossible to achieve its maximum value.