sentences:  However the real value of the piastre in Indochina remained around 10 francs or less; when piastres were transferred to France through the Foreign Exchange Office ("l'Office indochinois des changes", or OIC) the Treasury (therefore the French taxpayer) paid out the established seventeen francs per piastre, amounting to an effective subsidy of around 8.50 francs according to Jacques Despuech, author of the first book on the case in 1953 and journalist for "The French Nation.