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Four Greatest Licences to Print Money

Introduction

As we see in other parts of this book, a monopoly is a excellent starting point for
making a lot of money. Sometimes this monopoly comes as the result of winning a
contract in a heavily regulated industry.

The phrase ‘a licence to print money’ was coined by Lord Thomson, the Cana-
dian entrepreneur and newspaper man. He said it in relation to independent televi-
sion licenses. It works equally well when the government of the day has brought in
prohibition Idea 21.

One that you may be surprised to find in this section is Eurotunnel Idea 22. The
reason for surprise is that the tunnel is famous not for being a licence to print money,
but rather the biggest black hole of all time into which shareholders and banks poured
money. But we need to think forwards as well as back if we are to spot the greatest
ideas of all time. Eurotunnel’s time should come. I could not leave out the people
who are physically responsible for making money, the Royal Mint Idea 24.

But we start with a most recent example of an ancient way of printing money –
running a lottery.

Idea 20 – Betting with the odds approximately 14 million
to one in your favour.

A game of chance where, usually, each of many people has an equal opportunity of
winning the main or subsidiary prizes existed in Roman times. Roman emperors
used the drawing of lots to give away property and slaves during festivals.