It has long been immortalised as the tipple of gold-hungry pirates.

Now a Cuban proposal to use its trademark rum as a substitute currency could send the Caribbean nation’s Cold-War era creditors singing yo-ho-ho all the way to the bank.

The Czech Finance Ministry says Cuban authorities have proposed to pay back £222 million lent to the island by Communist Czechoslovakia in instalments of the spirit.

If that proposal becomes reality, the Czechs would have enough Cuban rum for well over a century.

According to the Czech Statistics Office, the Czechs – a nation of beer drinkers – imported rum from Cuba worth over £1.6 million last year.

Michal Zurovec, spokesman for the Czech Finance Ministry, said Prague would still prefer the debt was at least partly paid in cash

In the past, North Korea offered to repay its £8 million debt in products made with ginseng.

In 1993, Russia offered New Zealand a nuclear submarine and two MiG jet fighters to settle a $100m bill for dairy products including Anchor Butter.