One had to know that war reparations were backed by collateral.
For example, Austria's reparations were secured by the country's tariffs, along with salt and liquor taxes everywhere except Hungary.
That meant French bonds were backed by Austria's various national tax revenues. Their security was far greater than bonds issued purely on national credit.
With roughly equal returns, anyone would choose to buy such government bonds.
And the greater "killing move" was the bearer-purchase model.
At present, all government bonds across Europe had to be registered through banks. Anyone wishing to resell them had to go back to the bank and complete cumbersome procedures. This locked up buyers' funds. Many factory owners dared not purchase them for fear of insufficient working capital.
Joseph's bearer system effectively turned these government bonds into a kind of "currency." If holders found themselves short of cash, they could simply give up a little interest and sell their bonds at any time to recover funds.
The model sounded simple, but limited by the development of the financial industry and a lack of confidence in anti-counterfeiting technology, every country had chosen registered government bonds. It was not until the 1820s that the United Kingdom gradually began experimenting with bearer issues.
But for France, anti-counterfeiting was no problem.
France's papermaking and printing technologies were currently the most advanced in Europe, while its chemical technology was beyond compare. Coupled with the experience accumulated through issuing franc paper money—over the past few years, the franc had already undergone three generations of anti-counterfeiting upgrades—the possibility of forgery had been virtually eliminated.
Although Gaudin felt somewhat uncertain about bearer government bonds, since the Crown Prince said they would work, there should be no problem.
He hurriedly took out his notebook to write it down, only to hear Joseph continue:
"As for