Apparently we’ve been living in some horrific financial crisis for over a year now, and the news simply won’t let you forget about it. You would almost think it was the end of the world, as if this kind of thing is unique to our times and to modern economies, and that it’s a problem nobody has had to deal with before. But history, as always, has something to say about the matter.

Plenty of countries have gotten into a sticky situation with their accounts before, and in some of these cases empires have risen, and fallen in no small part due to bad treatment of the books. People have starved, people have gotten rich, and no small number lost their heads.

The Fourth Crusade: 1202-1204

Then: 86,000 silver marks
Now: $41 million

The Darien Scheme: 1695-1700

Then: £400,000
Now: $56 million

Welsh conquest: 1277-1283

Then: £240,000
Now: $193 million

French Revolution: 1789 – 1799

Then: £240,000
Now: $193 million

Philip II of Spain: 1554 – 1598

Then: £240,000
Now: $193 million

Ottoman Empire: 1853 – 1923

Then: £200 million
Now: $14 billion

7 Years’ War: 1756 – 1763

Then: £200 million
Now: $14 billion

Russian Revolution: 1917

Then: £200 million
Now: $14 billion

Weimar Republic: 1919-1933

Then: 269 billion gold marks
Now: $420 billion

British Empire: 1945-1997

Then: £21 billion
Now: $872 billion