Page - 581 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Raging of the Banknote Presses 581 came to a sum of around 90 billion) at the inflationary value of 1918 on its war,1354 and during the final year of the war had been in a position to cover no more than 17 per cent of its expenditure by ongoing revenues ? The index of living costs rose inexorably : June 1914 : 100 June 1915 : 153 June 1916 : 317 June 1917 : 650 June 1918 : 1,082 Alternatively : at the end of October 1918, the national debt ran to 83.155 billion kro- nen.1355 It was certainly tens of times greater than the level of debt before the war. It was unimaginable, and also impossible to repay, even if claims were still being made in the statement of accounts of the postal savings bank office that in 1918, ‘the institution still enjoyed a good financial year and achieved a satisfactory result’. The number of sav- ings investors had even increased slightly compared with that of 1917.1356 The Austrian currency still had a degree of coverage of 40 per cent, and the share value had decreased only slightly, since the shareholders wanted to wait and see how events would unfold.1357 Speculation was still possible. However, one thing already became very clear : it would not be Austria that would recoup its losses through its enemies. To a far greater extent, it was the latter who were looking for opportunities to offset their no less unspeakable material losses through reparations. The calculations continued. At any rate, the ‘secure world’ was now utterly gone.