Bliven Fund
| Bliven Fund | |
| Blivenfonds fonn Anglien | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 24.XI.1759 AN |
| Jurisdiction |
 Anglien |
| Headquarters | Johannsessbuurg |
| Agency executives | |
| Parent agency | |
| Ministry of Finance and Reconstruction of Anglien | |
| Child agencies | |
The Bliven Fund (Crandan: Blivenfonds fonn Anglien) is a sovereign endowment fund of the Free Duchy of Anglien, capitalized by five member states of the Concord Alliance Treaty Organization (CATO) as a concluding act of the alliance's assistance program to the duchy. The Concord Council approved the fund's final capitalization plan on 24.XI.1759 AN, with Natopia supplying the great majority of the capital. The endowment is intended to replace the reconstruction grants that lapsed with the end of the transitional period, transferring a share of its value to the Anglian treasury each year; its first annual transfer falls due in 1760 AN. The fund takes its name from the first word of the ducal motto, Wii Bliven, Wii Stans.
Background
The proposal was developed within the Ministry of Finance and Reconstruction under Minister Catrin Halvordssen and presented to the Concord Council by Transitional Prime Minister Eduard Vogt on 12.V.1757 AN. It was conceived as the financial counterpart to the drawdown of the Concord Alliance's presence in the duchy. The reconstruction grants administered through the Concord Alliance Military Assistance Mission to Anglien and the Commissioner of Peace had covered about 58 percent of government expenditure in the first year of the transition, and as those grants came to an end the endowment would give the duchy a durable source of external support in their place.
Under the Halvordssen plan the fund would be capitalized at approximately three times the duchy's annual government expenditure and invested entirely abroad. Natopia and Nouvelle Alexandrie, the two largest contributors to the reconstruction effort to that point, were expected to subscribe the majority of the capital. On 20.II.1759 AN, however, Nouvelle Alexandrie declined to subscribe, unwilling to enter a new quarter-century financial commitment during the Recession of 1757, leaving Natopia expected to seed the bulk of a smaller endowment largely on its own. The Federation's refusal did not extend to the duchy's recovery as a whole; it had backed the Aquaria nuclear new-build with an investment of around AM 12 billion in 1757 AN, and its officials drew the line at the open-ended endowment rather than at Anglien.
The fund became an issue in the duchy's first competitive election. te Landbond campaigned on the charge that the transitional establishment had captured the reconstruction money, naming the Bliven Fund, developed inside Minister Halvordssen's ministry, as its instrument. The charge carried in the lagging interior bailiwicks of Bahira and Shelsa. When Klaes Boerhaaf's government took office after the election of XII.1759 AN, the reconstruction portfolios passed to the parties that had contested the transitional government's handling of that money: Joost Veenstra of te Landbond took Finance and Reconstruction from Halvordssen, so the fund's first transfer in 1760 AN fell to a government other than the one that had designed it.
Capitalization
The Concord Council approved the final capitalization plan on 24.XI.1759 AN. Five of the alliance's seven members subscribed capital in deliberately asymmetric shares, with Natopia providing the bulk:
| Member state | Share |
|---|---|
 Natopia |
84 percent |
 East Zimia and the Wallis Islands |
6 percent |
 Constancia |
5 percent |
 Aerla |
3 percent |
 Vegno |
2 percent |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
none |
East Zimia and the Wallis Islands was the first member to come forward, announcing on 1.VIII.1759 AN that it would contribute; Aerla confirmed its subscription on 20.I.1760 AN. The plan held the capitalization target at approximately three times Anglien's annual government expenditure notwithstanding the reduced number of contributors. Of the alliance's remaining two members, neither Nouvelle Alexandrie nor Western Corum subscribed capital; each supported the effort in non-capital forms instead.
Non-capital contributions
Western Corum, which had furnished a counter-insurgency and liaison contingent during the transition, contributed technical assistance in place of a capital subscription.
Nouvelle Alexandrie had been among the largest contributors to the reconstruction before the fund, but it did not subscribe capital, make a grant, guarantee the fund, or replace the military personnel leaving with the Concord drawdown. The support it offered instead was confined to what existing departmental authority allowed, binding the next Cortes to no new appropriation, guarantee, or tariff change. The Federal Bank of Nouvelle Alexandrie and the Department of Treasury undertook to advise the fund's Anglian board on custody rules, asset reporting, and audits. New Alexandrian customs authorities were to prepare links between the Anglian ports and the Federation's cargo and inspection systems, and its trade officials were to draft duty-free quotas for Anglian fish, timber, and processed foods for the next Cortes to consider. New Alexandrian banks were left free to compete for the fund's commercial custody and investment mandates without a federal guarantee. The civilian legal, maritime, and public-administration advisers that the Federation had provided through the Concord Alliance Military Assistance Mission to Anglien were to continue by invitation once the mission's military functions ended.
Structure and transfers
The fund is invested entirely abroad, its portfolio weighted toward the Natopian natopo, which already anchors the Anglian mark, with the New Alexandrian écu, the Craitish cräite, the Hurmu crown, and the Meckelnburgh rixdollar providing diversification. Its holdings are kept separate from the natopo reserves that secure the Anglian mark's currency board, making the fund a fiscal replacement for the expiring grants rather than a change to the duchy's monetary regime. An Anglian-majority board seated in Johannsessbuurg appoints the foreign custodian banks and publishes the portfolio and its fees each quarter; CATO-nominated directors hold a minority of the board's seats through 1765 AN, after which every appointment passes to Anglian institutions.
Each year the fund transfers between four and five percent of its market value to the treasury, the first transfer set at 4.25 percent in 1760 AN. The transfers begin after the constitutional transition and are planned to draw the corpus down over roughly a quarter-century, to a final transfer around 1784 AN. Because the draw is fixed as a share of market value rather than as a set sum, the size of each annual transfer varies with the fund's investment performance.
See also
- Free Duchy of Anglien
- Anglian mark
- Anglian Monetary Office
- Anglien Reconstruction Finance Authority
- Ministry of Finance and Reconstruction of Anglien
- Concord Alliance Treaty Organization
- Concord Alliance Military Assistance Mission to Anglien
- CATO Commissioner of Peace for Anglien
- Charter of Anglien
