THE FRANCO-GERMAN INDEMNITY OF 1871 265 
on France may be described as one for a lump sum to be turned over 
at once. In fact, this was what France accomplished, the pay- 
ments being actually made in a less time than the treaty terms 
contemplated. The case therefore differs from other indemnities 
of modern times, since usually these have called for a series of pay- 
ments spread over many years. Such was the case with the 
Chinese Boxer indemnities under the Treaty of 1901, and with the 
Turkish indemnity under the treaty of 1878; it is most noticeably 
the case with the reparations payments required of Germany after 
the Great War. The Franco-German indemnity was peculiar in 
calling for the remittance of a great sum in a very short period of 
time, a transaction unexampled in history. 
Two tasks had to be performed by France in order to meet the 
obligation. One was to secure for the government treasury at 
home the funds which it must have in hand for the first move 
toward remittance. The other was to transfer these funds to 
Germany. The first task, a purely domestic one, was accom- 
plished with an ease and success which astonished Europe and 
perhaps astonished Germany most of all. France floated two great 
loans, one of 11 milliards (round numbers) in 1871, another of 
3 milliards in 1872. There was also a small surplus from the budg- 
ets of 1872 and 1873; the Bank of France made a small advance ; 
in the main it was the two publicly floated loans that supplied 
the money. The credit of F rance, tho shattered for a time by the 
war and by the Commune, had been early strengthened by the 
Morgan loan of 1870, one of the most courageous and successful 
operations in the history of that famous house, and was com- 
pletely restored by 1872. The great loan of that year (3 millia rds) 
was enormously successful, being over-subscribed 10 fold and more. 
Before the subscription books closed, it had become clear that the 
offering would more than absorb the stated total, and fancy bids 
poured in from bankers and investors eager to secure shares in the 
final allotment. 
The second task, that of transferring the funds to Germany, was 
met with no less success. Payments had to be made under the 
treaty mainly in German or French coin, or in bills of exchange ;