Dr. Jose Rizal received a loan of 300 pesetas from his friend Dr. Maximo Viola to publish Noli me Tangere. The novel "Noli me Tangere" (1887) from the Latin "touch me not" described the earth-shaking socially and politically sorry conditions of the colonized Filipinos. This novel fired the imagination of the leaders of the Philippine Revolution.
When the descendants of Jose Rizal realized i was a descendant of Maximo Viola, they asked tongue-in-check if I was trying to collect on this long extended debt (see blog june 26).
I posed a question to my accountant, Mr Vic Marquez, to compute the amount of this debt if paid today. He replied:
"Since I do not know yet how to convert Philippine pesetas during the Spanish time into modern Philippine peso, I can only give you the future value of that 300 pesetas:
300 pesetas at 3 per cent compounded annually for 125 years will be equivalent to 12,072 pesetas.
300 pesetas at 5 per cent compounded annually for 125 years will be equivalent to 133,593 pesetas.
Bik Marquez".
This is only the monetary value in absolute numbers. We still have to do the foreign exchange currency conversions. However, the psychic benefit, which can never be accounted for in terms of monetary value, must be too red-hot to handle.
