Convention between Great Britain and France, concluded in conformity with the 4th Article of the Principal Treaty, relative to the Payment of the Pecuniary Indemnity to be furnished by France to the Allied Powers.
The payment to which France has bound herself to the Allied Powers as an Indemnity by the IVth Article of the Treaty of this day, shall take place in the form and at the periods prescribed by the following Articles.
ART. I. The sum of 700,000,000 of francs, being the amount of the Indemnity, shall be discharged day by day, in equal portions, in the space of 5 years, by means of Bons au Porteur on the Royal Treasury of France, in the manner that shall be now set forth.
ART. II. The Treasury shall give over immediately to the Allied Powers, Fifteen Engagements for 46,000,000 and 2-3rds each, forming together the sum of 700,000,000; the first Engagement payable on the 31st of March 1816, the second on the 31st of July of the same year, and so on, in every 4th month, during the 5 successive years.
ART. III. These Engagements shall not be negotiable, but they shall be periodically exchanged against Bons au Porteur, negotiable, drawn in the form used in the ordinary service of the Royal Treasury.
ART. IV. In the month which shall precede the 4 in the course of which an Engagement is to be paid, that Engagement shall be divided by the Treasury of France, into Bons au Porteur payable in Paris, in equal portions, from the 1st to the last day of the 4 months.
Thus the Engagement of 46,000,000 and 2-3rds, falling due the 31st of March 1816, shall be exchanged in the month of November 1815, against Bons au Porteur payable in equal portions from the 1st of December 1815, to the 31st of March 1816.
The Engagement of 46,000,000 and 2-3rds which will fall due the 31st of July 1816, shall be exchanged in the month of March of the same year, against Bons au Porteur payable in equal portions from the 1st of April 1816 to the 31st of July of the same year, and so on, every four months.
ART. V. No single Bons au Porteur shall be delivered for the sum due each day, but the sum so due, shall be divided into several Coupures or Bills of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 Francs, the which sums added together, will amount to the sum total of the payment due for each day.
ART. VI. The Allied Powers, convinced that it is as much their interest as that of France, that too considerable a sum of Bons au Porteur should not be issued at once, agree that there never shall be in circulation Bons for more than 50,000,000 of francs at a time.
ART. VII. No interest shall be paid by France for the delay of 5 years which the Allied Powers allow to her for the payment of the 700,000,000 of francs.
ART. VIII. On the 1st of January 1816, there shall be made over by France to the Allied Powers, as a guarantee for the regularity of the payments, a fund of interest inscribed in the Grand Livre of the Public Debt of France, of 700,000,000 of francs, on a capital of 140,000,000. This fund of interest shall be used to make good, if there should be need of it, the deficiencies in the Acceptances of the French Government, and to render the payments equal, at the end of every 6 months, to the Bons au Porteur which shall have fallen due, as shall be hereafter detailed.
ART. IX. This fund of interest shall be inscribed in the name of such persons as the Allied Powers shall point out; but these persons cannot be the holders of the Inscriptions, except in the case provided for in the XIth Article ensuing.
The Allied Powers further reserve to themselves, the right to transfer the Inscriptions to other names, as often as they shall judge necessary.
ART. X. The deposit of these Inscriptions shall be confided to one Treasurer named by the Allied Powers, and to another named by the French Government.
ART. XI. There shall be a Mixed Commission, composed of an equal number on both sides, of Allied and French Commissioners, who shall examine, every 6 months, the state of the payments, and shall regulate the balance. The Bons of the Treasury paid, shall constitute the payments; those which shall not yet have been presented to the Treasury of France, shall enter into the account of the subsequent balance; those also which shall have fallen due, been presented, and not paid, shall constitute the arrear, and the sum of Inscriptions to be applied at the market price of the day, to cover the deficit.