Mr. Kossuth was not an economist, and neither were the high-ranking officials of the Republican Government; they had no economic sense whatsoever, they simply never considered what 200 million shields meant for Hungary!
Just because they didn't know, didn't mean everyone seated was unaware. Howell, the representative of the banking consortium, questioned:
"Mr. Kossuth, do you know what 200 million shields mean?"
This question left Kossuth flabbergasted. He had thought of these nobles and capitalists haggling over prices but never expected them to ask such a question.
From a currency value perspective, 1 shield was roughly equivalent to 11.69 grams of silver, so 200 million shields would be 46.76 million taels of silver. In that era, silver had not yet decreased in value, and when converted to British pounds, it amounted to over 20 million. (The gold-to-silver ratio was about 1:10).
