# How do countries pay each other sums of money?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 21, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117 "2014-08-21T18:27:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117/21 "2014-08-27T19:36:29Z")

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> [@sweeteviljesus](#):
>
> \<nitpick\>When Taiwan buys weapons from the US, they aren’t buying them from the government, they are buying them from the companies that make them (with US gov’t approval, of course).\</nitpick\>

Yes, as I pointed out in the first response to the OP.

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**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117/22 "2014-08-27T23:10:43Z")

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> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> Yes, as I pointed out in the first response to the OP.

My bad. I skimmed over the thread.

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117/23 "2015-05-13T18:31:54Z")

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> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> Also, many purchases of weapons are between a foreign country and a private business, not the government – it just has to give export approval to the sale.

True. But with weapon systems, the training of personnel might be done at a Government base, and the country will pay directly for that.

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**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117/24 "2015-05-13T18:47:50Z")

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From a Forbes Article in 2008:

> [@](#):
>
> In Manhattan, the Fed safeguards the gold of the world at no charge to the depositors, who only have to pay $1.75 per gold bar to have the stuff moved around the vault. If, for example, France wants to pay Russia for something in gold, it calls the Fed and has it move bars from its part of the vault to Russia’s part for the nominal transaction fee. When currencies were linked to the price of gold, transactions were aplenty, but that’s no longer the case these days. Last year there was just one transaction conducted in the vault, a Fed spokesman said, declining, for obvious reasons, to add more detail.

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-countries-pay-each-other-sums-of-money/696117/25 "2015-05-13T19:23:41Z")

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Great thread!

I asked the OP’s question in an Econ 101 class. I was an under grad freshman. It was 25 years ago. The instructor replied, “I don’t know, next question?”

Waited along time for these answers. Thanks all!

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