MONEY UPSIDE DOWN
MORE ■ PAUPERS THAN MILLION-
AIRES.
An Englishman is said to have changed a £5-note into* French.money, and'to have got more than twice as many francs as before the war. Then he changed his francs into German marks, and had to carry them in a handbag. Next he bought Polish marks, and received so many that he wheeled.them away in a perambulator. The Polish markß he changed into-Aus-trian kronen,, and then needed a pantechnioon van to put them in. - Finally, he bought with the Austrian kronen so many Russian roubles that they filled a long train! That. is really not so very wild an exaggeration., Russia is worse off in this -way than any other, country in Europe, for Russia's new -rulers deliberately set themselves to lower the value of roubles by printing them^in- vast quantities. Their object was to show the foolishness of money. A bank-note ought to, b& a /promise to pay. If tht British Government could- pay off all the holders of, its notes in gold sovereigns, our pound "would be worth as much as it was before the war. The. French frano is worth only half of its former value, the German mark about an eightieth, the Austrian kronen less than a three-thousandth, the Russian rouble c hundred-thousandth! This is because the. note currencies of these Stater have been so increased that their Governments have no hope of redeeming them. As a consequence, the amount of currency, or goods, whioh.can be purchased for British or Amerioan money, both of which have kept up their value fairly well, is bewildering., An American, dining in a. Vienna Restaurant, gave the waiter in payment of the bill & twenty-dollar gold piece:—about four times the size of a sovereign. The waiter looked at it in amazement, took it to the proprietor, and came back, and said: "I am to give you as much change as. you desire." Just before the' war, a Hungarian asked a friend in England to buy him certain articles which would cost altogether about £10. Ha sent 240 Hungarian kronen, whioh then equalled that amount. Before the articles could be bought, war. broke out. Only lately did the Hungarian's present address- become known to his friend. The Englishman sent him £10, which he changed into 46,000 kronen!_ Peasants who buried their gold and silver' coinß when metal money grew scarce, have'been able to buy immense sums of paper money. But there are more paupers than millionaires ,to-day (says the "Children's Newspaper"). Sef against all this, the sad plight of an old oouple who lived on an income of 10,000 kronen, derived from em investment. It was worth £400 in our money, and they lived in comfort. To-day it is worth 3s, and they are in dire distress.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 17
Word Count
462MONEY UPSIDE DOWN Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 17
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