Yale's 367-year-old water bond still pays interest
12 hours ago
- #historical finance
- #Yale collections
- #Dutch water bonds
- A 1648 Dutch water bond at Yale’s Beinecke Library still pays annual interest after 367 years.
- Timothy Young collected 12 years of back interest (€136.20) from Stichtse Rijnlanden, a Dutch water authority.
- Yale’s bond is one of five known surviving bonds issued by Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams for dike and canal maintenance.
- The bond, written on goatskin, originally paid 5% interest in perpetuity (later reduced to 2.5%).
- Interest payments were recorded directly on the bond, which funded river flow regulation structures.
- Yale acquired the bond in 2003; Geert Rouwenhorst last collected interest in 2003 for 26 years.
- Perpetual debt like this is rare due to defaults, wars, or government recalls.
- The bond’s financial autonomy allowed it to survive political and economic upheavals.
- A paper addendum now travels to the Netherlands for interest collection, keeping the bond 'live.'
- The bond is a bearer instrument, with no ownership registry maintained by the water board.
- Yale’s Collection of Financial History also includes a non-paying Dutch East India Company bond (c. 1622).