Hmmmm… only 12 billion USD. I thought it would have been more.
A friend of mine who helped me through some tough times always said, if you lend or give your money away, never expect to see it again. This was in response to me not being able to pay him back when I promised. I eventually did pay him back, but his kindness and generosity still haunts me with guilt.
The only alternative that the Bucharest authorities at that time had, was to either ship it or risk letting it fall into German/Austro-Hungarian hands. It’s more like having to choose between storing your physical money to your friend’s house or keeping it with the high risk of having it stolen for good by someone you’re not even friends with.
Edit: and that wasn’t really a “friend” either. It was a country that tried to take advantage of our fight for independence against the Ottomans in order to annex us themselves. And it was a “friend” which previously annexed parts of former Principality of Moldova which was inhabited by Romanians. As the saying goes: with friends like these, one needs no other enemy.
Luckily, they learnt their lesson, so BNR hid what was left of the treasury in a monastery during WW2.
