do at a time when it will be inconvenient to the investor to be repaid.
Besides these obvious requirements we shall want the interest, drawn bonds and bonds due on maturity to be paid in sterling money or else in American dollars, or some currency in the stability of which we have the most complete confidence. It may be asked why, if this proviso is to be insisted on, the stability of the debtor's currency was, a few pages ago, put down as a matter to be investigated—why does it concern the investor if he is to be paid in sterling or dollars? Because if the currency is unstable in which most of the debtor's revenue is collected, the debtor Government will evidently have more difficulty in providing the dollars or pounds in which the debt charge has to be paid; and in so far as its revenue is collected "in gold," the tax-payer will have the more difficulty in paying it. When the Brazilian milreis fell from 1s. 4d. to 5d. in exchange value, the Brazilian tax-payer had to produce more than three times as much in local currency in order to put down pounds in London for the service of the English loans, which thus involved a greater effort on the part of the debtor country and impaired the creditor's security without increasing his income.
