republic or monarchy down their throats; even if the loan has been

floated, as Couture says, to pay the interest on that very same
national debt. Nobody can complain. These are the real principles of

the present Golden Age."
"When the stage machinery is so huge," continued Bixiou, "a good many

puppets are required. In the first place, Nucingen had purposely and
with his eyes open invested his five millions in an American

investment, foreseeing that the profits would not come in until it was
too late. The firm of Nucingen deliberately emptied its coffers. Any

liquidation ought to be brought about naturally. In deposits belonging
to private individuals and other investments, the firm possessed about

six millions of capital altogether. Among those private individuals
was the Baroness d'Aldrigger with her three hundred thousand francs,

Beaudenord with four hundred thousand, d'Aiglemont with a million,
Matifat with three hundred thousand, Charles Grandet (who married

Mlle. d'Aubrion) with half a million, and so forth, and so forth.
"Now, if Nucingen had himself brought out a joint-stock company, with

the shares of which he proposed to indemnify his creditors after more
or less ingenious manoeuvring, he might perhaps have been suspected.

He set about it more cunningly than that. He made some one else put up
the machinery that was to play the part of the Mississippi scheme in

Law's system. Nucingen can make the longest-headed men work out
schemes for him without confiding a word to them; it is his peculiar

talent. Nucingen just let fall a hint to du Tillet of the pyramidal,
triumphant notion of bringing out a joint-stock enterprise with

capital sufficient to pay very high dividends for a time. Tried for
the first time, in days when noodles with capital were plentiful, the

plan was pretty sure to end in a run upon the shares, and consequently
in a profit for the banker that issued them. You must remember that

this happened in 1826.
"Du Tillet, struck through he was by an idea both pregnant and

ingenious, naturally bethought himself that if the enterprise failed,
the blame must fall upon somebody. For which reason, it occurred to

him to put forward a figurehead director in charge of his commercial
machinery. At this day you know the secret of the firm of Claparon and

Company, founded by du Tillet, one of the finest inventions----"
"Yes," said Blondet, "the responsible editor in business matters, the

instigator, and scapegoat; but we know better than that nowadays. We
put, 'Apply at the offices of the Company, such and such a number,

such and such a street,' where the public find a staff of clerks in
green caps, about as pleasing to behold as broker's men."

"Nucingen," pursued Bixiou, "had supported the firm of Charles
Claparon and Company with all his credit. There were markets in which

you might safely put a million francs' worth of Claparon's paper. So
du Tillet proposed to bring his firm of Claparon to the fore. So said,

so done. In 1825 the shareholder was still an unsophisticated being.
There was no such thing as cash lying at call. Managing directors did

not pledge themselves not to put their own shares upon the market;
they kept no deposit with the Bank of France; they guaranteed nothing.

They did not even descend" target="_blank" title="vi.屈尊；堕落">condescend to explain to shareholders the exact
limits of their liabilities when they informed them that the directors

in their goodness, refrained from asking any more than a thousand, or
five hundred, or even two hundred and fifty francs. It was not given

out that the experiment in aere publico was not meant to last for more
than seven, five, or even three years, so that shareholders would not

have long to wait for the catastrophe. It was in the childhood of the
art. Promoters did not even publish the gigantic prospectuses with

which they stimulate the imagination, and at the same time make
demands for money of all and sundry."

"That only comes when nobody wishes to part with money," said Couture.
"In short, there was no competition in investments," continued Bixiou.

"Paper-mache manufacturers, cotton printers, zinc-rollers, theatres,
and newspapers as yet did not hurl themselves like hunting dogs upon

their quarry--the expiring shareholder. 'Nice things in shares,' as
Couture says, put thus artlessly before the public, and backed up by

the opinions of experts ('the princes of science'), were negotiated
shamefacedly in the silence and shadow of the Bourse. Lynx-eyed

speculators used to execute (financially speaking) the air Calumny out
of The Barber of Seville. They went about piano, piano, making known

the merits of the concern through the medium of stock-exchange gossip.
They could only exploit the victim in his own house, on the Bourse, or

in company; so they reached him by means of the skilfully created
rumor which grew till it reached a tutti of a quotation in four

figures----"
"And as we can say anything among ourselves," said Couture, "I will go

back to the last subject."
"Vous etes orfevre, Monsieur Josse!" cried Finot.

"Finot will always be classic, constitutional, and pedantic,"
commented Blondet.

"Yes," rejoined Couture, on whose account Cerizet had just been
condemned on a criminalcharge. "I maintain that the new way is

infinitely less fraudulent, less ruinous, more straightforward than
the old. Publicity means time for reflection and inquiry. If here and

there a shareholder is taken in, he has himself to blame, nobody sells
him a pig in a poke. The manufacturing industry----"

"Ah!" exclaimed Bixiou, "here comes industry----"
"---- is a gainer by it," continued Couture, taking no notice of the

interruption. "Every government that meddles with commerce and cannot
leave it free, sets about an expensive piece of folly; State

interference ends in a MAXIMUM or a monopoly. To my thinking, few
things can be more in conformity with the principles of free trade

than joint-stock companies. State interference means that you try to
regulate the relations of principal and interest, which is absurd. In

business, generally speaking, the profits are in proportion to the
risks. What does it matter to the State how money is set circulating,

provided that it is always in circulation? What does it matter who is
rich or who is poor, provided that there is a constant quantity of

rich people to be taxed? Joint-stock companies, limited liability
companies, every sort of enterprise that pays a dividend, has been

carried on for twenty years in England, commercially the first country
in the world. Nothing passes unchallenged there; the Houses of

Parliament hatch some twelve hundred laws every session, yet no member
of Parliament has ever yet raised an objection to the system----"

"A cure for plethora of the strong box. Purely vegetable remedy," put
in Bixiou, "les carottes" (gambling speculation).

"Look here!" cried Couture, firing up at this. "You have ten thousand
francs. You invest it in ten shares of a thousand francs each in ten

different enterprises. You are swindled nine times out of the ten--as
a matter of fact you are not, the public is a match for anybody, but

say that you are swindled, and only one affair turns out well (by
accident!--oh, granted!--it was not done on purpose--there, chaff

away!). Very well, the punter that has the sense to divide up his
stakes in this way hits on a splendid investment, like those who took

shares in the Wortschin mines. Gentlemen, let us admit among ourselves
that those who call out are hypocrites, desperately vexed because they

have no good ideas of their own, and neither power to advertise nor
skill to exploit a business. You will not have long to wait for proof.

In a very short time you will see the aristocracy, the court, and
public men descend into speculation in serried columns; you will see

that their claws are longer, their morality more crooked than ours,
while they have not our good points. What a head a man must have if he

has to found a business in times when the shareholder is as covetous
and keen as the inventor! What a great magnetizer must he be that can

create a Claparon and hit upon expedients never tried before! Do you
know the moral of it all? Our age is no better than we are; we live in

an era of greed; no one troubles himself about the intrinsic value of
a thing if he can only make a profit on it by selling it to somebody

else; so he passes it on to his neighbor. The shareholder that thinks
he sees a chance of making money is just as covetous as the founder

that offers him the opportunity of making it."
"Isn't he fine, our Couture? Isn't he fine?" exclaimed Bixiou, turning

to Blondet. "He will ask us next to erect statues to him as a
benefactor of the species."

"It would lead people to conclude that the fool's money is the wise
man's patrimony by divine right," said Blondet.

"Gentlemen," cried Couture, "let us have our laugh out here to make up
for all the times when we must listen gravely to solemn nonsense