We study three centuries of U.K., U.S. and Dutch fiscal history. When a country is the dominant safe asset supplier, it can issue more debt than what is justified by its future primary surpluses, even after accounting for seigniorage revenue from convenience yields on the debt. This pattern holds for the Dutch Republic in the 17th and 18th, the U.K. in the 18th and 19th, and the U.S. in the 20th and 21st centuries. When the Dutch Republic’s and the U.K.’s fiscal fundamentals deteriorated, they lost their dominant position as the safe asset supplier. After losing their exorbitant privilege, their debt was fully backed by primary surpluses. We conclude that exorbitant privilege derives from the ability to issue overpriced government debt in the early stage, followed by bondholder losses and financial repression in the later stage.