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Project Work Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of The Requirements For The Award of Degree of
IN
a. Flow of Events
The Italian Renaissance (14th Century)
The Italian Renaissance started the practice of raising money from its citizens to
finance Wars in the 14th Century
The cities of Tuscany, Pisa, Siena and Florence were at war and hired mercenary
groups to conduct warfare on their behalf in the 1360s and the 1370s
Among them the most famous was Mr. John Hawkwood from Essex
Constant warfare and the need to raise even more funds caused the renaissance to
deploy more and more bonds
Since these bonds were loans taken forcefully from the people, eventually with the
increase in bond volume, the bond value declined
The Battle of Waterloo and the rise of the Rothschilds
The battle of waterloo brought forth an obscure family of 5 brothers who gained
massive popularity as the masters of the bond market
The British army at waterloo led by Duke of Wellington was going up against the
French Army led by Napoleon
The third Rothschild brother Nathan, was the mastermind of the entire Rothschild
banking system and was appointed the agent of the British government
His job was to convert the cash raised in the bond market and convert it into gold so
that the duke could use it to finance the conflict
To benefit from the war, he used his brothers present in prominent financial centres
of Europe to raise massive amounts of funds in the form of Gold to prepare for a
long, protracted war
This gamble proved to be disastrous as the battle ended rather quickly with
unneeded gold reserves left to rot with Nathan Rothschild
Rothschild suffered a heavy amount of loss and had to mitigate it somehow
He used the gold to raise the price of bonds higher and higher and held for a year
while the buying frenzy lasted, and then sold his gold at 40% profit
The American Civil War
A major turning point in the American Civil War was when the south lost the
Mississippi river in 1863
However, there was an even more important event that took place in 1862 when
New Orleans was taken over by the union
The Confederation used cotton to involve the bond market into the war
They used cotton as collateral to back their bonds which increased trust in the
market
To incite Britain and consequently the Rothschilds to Finance their war effort, the
confederation tried to restrict the cotton supply to increase the price of cotton and
consequently, cotton bonds
The confederation levied an embargo on the shipments of cotton to Britain
This worked temporarily and, in the process, wrecked Britain’s economy
Then, the union took over New Orleans which prevented the investors to take
physical possession of their cotton
The confederation’s movie backfired and the cotton backed bonds plummeted,
moreover, Britain eventually found alternate sources of cotton from Egypt, India and
China
After the cotton backed bonds lost their value, the confederation did not have a
choice but to print large amounts of paper money to finance the war. Even this was
low in value compared to a similar concept applied in the north by the union
Large volumes of money printed with decline in buying power led to extremely high
amounts of inflation in the south, which eventually led the north to victory
The Fall of Argentina (1989)
Argentina suffered two wars, one between left wing generals in 1970s and one with
Britain for the Falkland Islands in 1982
Incessant spending on warfare led to hyperinflation
Inflation rates were as high as 10% per month
The government tried to prevent a currency collapse by lowering interest rates
Despite the efforts the Austral fell around 140% against the dollar and the World
bank also refused to lend money to the government citing their flawed civil policy
The government began a desperate money minting spree, which ended because they
ran out of paper to print more
Higher and higher denomination of notes were printed which caused inflation to
jump to 100% per month
Eventually led to rioting and looting of shops by hungry mobs
Present Day
Cities: - As the states of Tuscany, Florence, Risa and Siena already had doubled the
tax from quite few years this was not an option for them anymore to finance the
wars. The states of Tuscany, Florence, Risa and Siena had an added advantage as it
saved them from bankruptcy and solved the problem of public debt by facilitating
finance from its own citizens through debt instruments such as bonds.
Citizens: - Although initially the citizens were forced to lend money to the states, it
still was beneficial to them as they were given interest on the face value of the bond
and were allowed to sell their bond whenever needed.
Economy: - As the number of unproductive wars increased, more bonds were issued
to meet the financial needs. This led to excess of supply of bonds in the bond
market. The greater the number of bonds issued, the less valuable they appeared to
investors. This also implies that the return on the bonds was quite good with respect
to the risk taken. As the value of bonds rose at par, the bond market oversaw setting
interest rates for the entire economy. From being used as a debt instrument to raise
finance for war it started to set interests rates in the economy.
Battel of waterloo:
During the battle of waterloo in 1815 the British government had enough money from
bonds and banknotes, but this was not of much use as they were not able to pay the British
allies against the French. They needed a universally accepted currency.
Nathan Rothschild founder of the Rothschild bank in London, was given the job – to take the
money from the bond markets and deliver it to the duck of Wellington as gold.
Gold as universally accepted currency: Exchange rate system came into effect in
1944, to set up a better system of fixed exchange rates. Due to the absence of
exchange rate during 18th century the British realized the need of universally
accepted currency during war. Hence, they started using gold as the universally
accepted currency.
Wealth generated by Rothschilds: Rothschilds acted as the war financer as they had
a ready-made network within the family. All the five Rothschild brothers were in
major states which was an advantage to them. They accumulated vast wealth by
trading gold in the market. For example, if the price of gold in Paris is more than
London then James in Paris would sell and Nathan in London would buy. So, the
main strategy was to sell at a higher price and buy at a lower price hence increasing
their profit margin.
Bonds as investments: After facing heavy losses in March 1815 when Napoleon
returned to Paris, Nathan used the Rothschilds gold to make massive and huge
investment in government bonds. The price of the British bonds increased as the
British won the battle of waterloo. He sold his bond holding in July 1817, when
bond prices had risen by 40%, and his earnings were worth nearly £600 million
today. This led to a realization that bonds could be purchased and traded in a
way that created substantial money, and with money came power.
Conclusion:
The Bond market, which started in the world as a means of financing war by
government borrowing, eventually ended up functioning as the bedrock of all other financial
markets, and the most important component for driving the economic vehicle forward.
It can be inferred that the corporate bonds like commercial papers, CD’s as well as
government bonds like T-bills came into existence by referring all the events and came up
with stringent norms and regulations favourable to both public and sellers.