Greece, Ireland and Portugal have all teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. But anyone who thinks this is a new phenomenon is seriously mistaken.England was on the brink of insolvency in Victorian times. Austria was unable to pay its bills in 1811, and any number of countries were similarly threatened in the 1920s. And there's a recent example in Argentina in 2002. Julia Henrichmann went to the Historical Museum to have a look at the history of state bankruptcies.