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→Modern Characteristics of Public Debt
==Modern Characteristics of Public Debt==
With the creation of the Bank of England, the English government began to successfully pay its public debt even when it reached high levels. In the Napoleonic Wars of the first decade of the 19th century, debt reached 200% of GDP. In the early 19th century, governments began to make gold as the basis of currency value, which initially helped currencies to stabilize and gave some confidence in notes issued by governments. During the 19th century, the increasing wealth of the United Kingdom, and the government's success in paying its debt down, lowered debt in the United Kingdom. Other countries were not as lucky. The new independent countries of Latin American in the 1820s were able to get loans from the bond market in London, as the United Kingdom became the central country for government finance. Some of the countries defaulted; however, the Bank of England did have power to forgive debts and, similar to early government institutions in antiquity, would simply allow indebted countries to walk free. Other times the terms were rewritten in regards to servicing the debts.
==Summary==
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